RDC Properties, the country’s first variable rate loan stock company to be listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) has announced plans to go into the development of residential property.
Traditionally, the company selectively developed and invested in modern commercial and industrial buildings in prominent locations in both Botswana and Madagascar.
Chairman of the Board, Guido Giachetti, said this week his company is undertaking a feasibility study that could see the group developing a multi residential property in Tlokweng.
The move is likely to see an increase in RDC’s exposure to the industrial and the residential sectors. The company added that it is also exploring potential foreign diversification.
“We have commenced with the feasibility and analysis of the scheme with a view of ensuring the development addresses the current needs of the market,” Giachetti told financial analysts and journalists on Thursday.
The company is expected to build 1 bedroom, 2 bedrooms lofts with terraces that will be rented out.
Apart from the residential property, the company says it will soon commence a new project in Gaborone West that will see an erection of new mini ware housing units. The project is expected to take close to 20 months.
Meanwhile the company’s financial statements for the year that ended 31 December 2013 shows that reflect a shift from substantial profit generated by revaluation of the developments to rental growth (up 56 percent) and operating profits before revaluation (up 83 percent), mainly due to the contribution by Masa Centre to the overall results.
The company says that the valuation adjustment has substantially decreased (41 percent), due to the fact that in 2012 it had the effect of the valuation of Masa Centre which had previously been valued at cost.
The financials shows that RDC properties’ investment and property portfolio, in line with long term leases signed, grew by 12 percent to P859 million which represents a stable growth over the rate of inflation.
“We are pleased that we indirectly have made Gaborone a better place to live by generating a “touch of elegance and metropolitan feel” to the New Central Business District.” A statement accompanying the results reads.
The company’s Return on Equity (ROE) achieved this year is 14 percent while its revenue increased from P46, 025 million in 2012 to P71, 620 million in 2013, showing an increase of 56 percent.
RDC’s profit from operations before fair value adjustments in 2013 increased by an impressive 83 percent to P54, 039 (P29, 544 in 2012) while the Profit after tax in 2013 is lower than it was in 2012.
