At an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Tower Property Fund on 24 November 2021, all resolutions required to implement the transaction were passed by a majority of 98 percent of the meeting. There being no subsequent challenge to the transaction, the South African Takeover Regulation Panel declared the transaction unconditional on 8th December, thereby paving the way for finalisation.
Making the announcement the Executive Chairman Guido Giachetti noted that: “As RDC Properties Limited we are very excited about this significant milestone in the ground-breaking transaction which has been underway for the past 12 months, to include Tower Property Fund as a wholly owned subsidiary of RDC. This is a landmark acquisition for us which will have a fundamental effect on our business operations and ushers in a new era at RDC as a truly diversified, proudly Botswana property business.”
Tower Property Fund owns an SA domiciled portfolio of mixed use, retail and high quality office properties predominantly in Western Cape, Gauteng and some exposure in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as a large stabilised Euro based portfolio in Croatia. The company’s flagship properties include the iconic Cape Quarter, a landmark retail and office precinct in Cape Town, Sunclare, an anchor property in the highly successful decentralised node of Claremont, and VMD Towers in Zagreb – one of the European City’s latest landmarks. The Tower acquisition consequently more than doubles the total the value of the RDC portfolio from P2.3 billion to R5.8 billion.
RDC is proud to contribute to the diversification of the Botswana economy as the growth of the foreign property portfolio and in particular the income flowing from these investments back to Botswana will benefit a large pool of local unitholders creating an international hedge for future generations. Through and enlarged management team, RDC will be able to take advantage of more sophisticated and deeper property markets enabling the company to take up opportunities further afield for the benefit of its unitholders.
“As a BSE listed company this transaction has been a major achievement at diversifying our portfolio and mitigating against market risks, and is testament that a Botswana company can grow beyond our borders and compete with the best anywhere in the world. With the growth of the company the biggest beneficiaries are our unitholders from the institutional shareholders, Botswana pension funds and ordinary Batswana, and we are proud to be able to deliver this value for their investment,” asserted Giachetti. The Process will culminate in the listing of the new RDC shares on the BSE just before Christmas, and the delisting of the Tower shares from the JSE approximately a week later.
