Prime Time Property Holdings says its future plans remain to expand into the region beyond the Zambian properties acquired during the prior year, which do not form a significant segment and for the purpose of segmental reporting have been combined with the Botswana property segment.
The company’s financial results ended 31st August, 2014 have shown the 35 percent increase in investment property value from P544 million to P732 million and three new properties added in the year at a total cost of P149m, bringing PrimeTime’s total number of properties to 24.
Now that Prime Plaza is complete, the company stated that it is evaluating other investment opportunities both in the Gaborone CBD and beyond adding that whilst they believe that the retail space in Gaborone and other major towns in Botswana is saturated, opportunities do exist in outlying areas for retail space.
Led by Board Chairman Petronella Matumo and Managing Director Sandy Kelly, Prime Time believes that the regulatory situation in Zambia has settled down and with the US Dollar now reinstated as a trading currency, they are currently considering some exciting prospects there.
“At the year-end our portfolio was valued at P732 million with outstanding borrowings of P295m. This gives us scope for our next stage of debt leveraged growth of about P300 million. This will take our portfolio value over P1 billion which we are targeting to achieve in the next 18 months,” reads the statement.
Its most notable achievement is said to have been the completion of Prime Time’s investment in Prime Plaza, situated in the new CBD in Gaborone, on time and on budget. The company further said that this has been the main contributing factor in the 35 percent growth in investment property value which stood at P732m in 2014 compared to P544m in 2013.
“Currently we as PrimeTime now own 3 buildings in Prime Plaza, CEDA House which was completed in August 2012, Marula House completed at the end of November 2013 and most recently Barclays House which was completed in August 2014,” reads the statement.
Prime Time’s premium location is also said to have attracted an equal caliber of tenants with Cresta, Stockbrokers Botswana, SA Express Airlines and GIZ already in situ at Marula House. Barclays House is, of course, the new head office for Barclays Bank of Botswana, and PrimeTime has also forged a further beneficial alliance with them by securing a large portion of the funding for this final building on the site from them.
The company reported that a total distribution of 15.60 thebe per linked unit has been achieved for the year of which 5.17 thebe was paid out on 7 March, 2014 (which covered profits for the 4 months to 31 December, 2013) and 7.70 thebe was paid out on 22 August, 2014 (which covered profits for the 6 months to 30 June, 2014).
