Buyout bid for Baywest Mall
Rebosis puts in offer for Abacus’s shares
TOP-tier changes are on the cards for Baywest Mall, with the centre to go under the ownership of leading property management company Rebosis Property Fund. Rebosis, which is the sister company of mall developer and co-owner Billion Group, on Monday announced it had made an offer to buy 100% of the mall as part of a R6-billion acquisition deal.
This is part of a bigger quest by Rebosis to acquire all of Billion Group’s businesses, to which it is given first preference, as a means to consolidate its operations.
Billion Group – owned by Eastern Cape businessman Sisa Ngebulana, who is also Rebosis’s chief executive – owns half the R2.3-billion mall, with the other half owned by Abacus Asset Management.
The transaction will see Billion Group buying Abacus’s shares and taking full ownership, allowing Rebosis to acquire 100% of the mall.
While the change of ownership will have no direct bearing on the mall’s customers and tenants, the move is set to boost the mall’s market standing under the ownership of a JSE-listed company.
Rebosis has been on the sidelines since the mall’s conception to take over its operations.
The company announced on Monday that it had put in an offer to acquire full ownership of Baywest, Centurion’s R2.2-billion Forest Hill City and half of Mthatha’s R1.7-billion BT Ngebs City.
Rebosis chief financial officer Kameel Kashev said Rebosis, as owner, would play a part in the respective malls’ daily operations while enjoying the support of the existing tenant base.
“Nothing changes in terms of tenant base and mix,” he said.
“If anything, we would significantly appreciate the support of the current tenant base because it works very well and obviously that’s been one of the factors that Rebosis has found to be a key attraction in terms of a mall like Baywest and the way it has performed in less than a year.”
Kashev said the company had been outsourcing some of its operations to Billion Asset Management and Billion Property Services, with the move set to consolidate these.
“What will happen is that . . . because Rebosis is acquiring the assets from Billion, Billion will be acquiring the balance of the 50% from Abacus. In essence, and as a result, Rebosis then has the entitlement to buy 100% of [Baywest] Mall,” he said.
The company is only buying the mall, with Billion Group still the developer and owner of the land to be used for the precinct’s R1.2-billion development plans.