Mall of Africa owner Attacq delivers solid results

Steven is on the money show 6 to 8 pm the property company attack they own the moral of

Africa they're developing water force city they're reporting their occupancy increasing to nearly

94% they've increased their distributable income per share by over 5% peter de Villiers since the

chief financial officer at attack a peter good evening and thanks for your time you've been

able to increase your occupancy you've been building quite quickly at water force city

what's it been like finding occupants for the site there Steven it's been I think

wonderful the unique value proposition obviously we've got a lot of we've done some

residential developments recently we've only recently done a speculative office that's in

obviously an office development where we don't have a tenant when we start and that that

completed it sort of towards the end of last year financial year and full depth quite nasty

and was that we we dream that another office development what we call guideway east about 10,000

squares of office and that's also been leasing up quite nicely so we I think the office market

is still very competitive very top technical vacancies we do go ahead to the centre and other

surrounds and but I think everyone seen that there has definitely been a much firmer focus

on returning to work from everyone there are definitely habit models are there and that's helping

job office to mount it's interesting because I mean from what I understand of some of your

competitors own property in Santa and they still have relatively high vacancy rates I mean is it

the traffic maybe I mean is there something in that that's even driving through traffic now at

certain times just makes you want to oh I won't complete that sentence but you know what I mean Peter

I sit in traffic every day and I can't complain because that means people are going back to work so

I think none of us like traffic and and that was probably the one of the perks of of lockdowns

that you could pretty much drive anywhere and have a reasonable time and expectation when

to get there but so traffic definitely back with that these people are back in the office and to be

honest we love it you've been able to improve your trading density at the mall of Africa people

are spending more money there and I must tell you Peter I have a friend who says he never takes

the family to mall of Africa because he can never find his car afterwards um is there a vibe to

that mall that's drawing shoppers in is it working as a retail center I mean it considering the

sheer size of it I mean obviously it it must be in a way but I sometimes wonder if it's almost

you know too big to sort of be seen as one mall it is a large mall obviously not the largest in

the country but was the largest bulk in a single phase so it came in at around about 130 000

squares um I think the nice thing is that because it is a super regional it functions and it

cases through a very large variety in a large audience so I think as males or maybe say we go in the

the almost hunt and hit and run side and other people want to wander through the mall and

hopefully we've got a broader pill for everyone but it definitely functions very well 10 years old

and we are looking at refreshing it in parts and and new things around but we'll have to

announce that in in future once I'll apply our plans of finalize but definitely

function very well and be very proud and happy to to have an asset of that caliber.

You've been investing in more water tanks for your centres and I can see why you would need to do

that um how expensive is that it must cost you something I mean you would you would think and

certainly running a mall you know some time ago you'd think well all I need to do is make sure

the plumbing is sorted out and the council has the capacity now you have to make sure yourself

ready that your malls and developments have enough water correct and and there's both pros and

cons to that obviously if you where I mean we put we put that like backup water in all of our

assets not all of them are new and and and best of breed if I can call it a fantastic malls but

some of them are a bit older the advantage of of developing waterfalls we get to try and put

in something from the start rather than retrofit it so we haven't invested very heavily in water

and for something it started doing thankfully before there was this last protected pair of water

artisans and great to Johannesburg and it's definitely paying dividends it does mean that our

initial returns are not great but or not as good as it could be because you're putting more

capex in but we are finding now resilience and and sustainable it's definitely very hard on on

tenants wishless there's no point in having an office if you don't have water and water is one

thing that cannot be produced so it's paying off well I mean we're going to think a hundred

million into capex in our operational portfolio not all of that is for water but I think given by

in by the end of 2026 or just after we're going to have that she 12 meter of storage so we've

we've more than doubled that in in the last one and that we get to build that spec into our new

developments going forward as well yeah it's interesting things you have to do you know that maybe

you wouldn't have thought of doing earlier other services you need from councils I mean obviously

electricity you'll do the same thing you'll try and generate as much of your own as you can as

you can do you try and minimize your exposure to councils and I say this because in some areas

a service delivery really is very weak it is a it is a problem in South Africa we we definitely do

try to make sure we lose the lens so you can have an almost always on mentality and that does

mean putting PV on the roofs that does mean putting extra backup water but more than that it does

also mean working as closely as one can with council and fostering a very strong and close

relationship with them for instance in the border waterfall area we've been working with council

and we'll be contributing to some additional water for the greater area which will help

us as a developer in the area as well that does mean we we're contributing towards a new water

town the area at 10 mL water tower so it does definitely require a landlord being much more skilled

in in a broader variety of areas than say not 20 years ago they are they are the challenges to

solve but they enlarge the opportunity as well. Peter Devellis thank you so much Chief Financial Officer

of ATTACK.