Synergy to distribute R25 million to unitholders

JSE-listed property company Synergy Income Fund (SGA‚ SGB) on Thursday announced its maiden distributions to unitholders and closed a heavily oversubscribed vendor placement of R370 million in new capital for the fund.

Synergy said it would distribute R25.3 million as the maiden distribution to unitholders for the period from listing on December 14 2011 to June 30 2012.

William Brooks‚ CEO of Synergy Income Fund‚ said: “We are very pleased to be able to report a maiden distribution in line with our forecast particularly as this has been achieved despite the unexpected challenges and consequent delays to our acquisition pipeline brought on by the competition authorities. Thankfully these challenges are now behind us and we can continue with the acquisition-driven growth strategy for our retail portfolio.”

The company revealed that the allocated distribution was 44.2201 cents per A linked unit and 19.5340 cents per B linked unit.

Synergy said the distributions announced were in line with the projections forecast in the pre-listing statement for the company.

The successful capital raising will increase the market capitalisation of Synergy to approximately R1.1 billion.

Synergy is a specialised retail property fund investing in mid-sized commuter and small regional shopping centres located in high growth rural and township nodes. Synergy operates in partnership with leading convenience retailer Spar.

The company said it had grown its assets from R280 million at listing to R1.7 billion currently.

The capital raised through the vendor placement will be used as part payment for Synergy’s latest acquisitions‚ Gugulethu Square in Cape Town and Setsing Crescent in Phuthaditjhaba.

The remaining portion of the total R530 million purchase consideration is being funded by debt.