Acsion downgrades IPO with no private placing

8 Dec 2014

Property developer Acsion is to go ahead with its listing on the JSE on Tuesday, 9 December 2014, but it will only be an introduction of the company's shares and not a private placing.

Acsion downgrades IPO with no private placing

The unusual move, Acsion said on Wednesday, was made even though significant interest had been shown in the private placing of the shares, according to a mention in Acsion's prelisting statement at the end of last month.

In its statement on Wednesday, the group said a private placing was not necessary as it had exceptionally low gearing of 7% at present. "This provides significant headroom for additional funding, which is sufficient to fund the company's mediumterm growth."

Declining to comment further, the company said on Wednesday it had confirmed to the JSE that the restructuring transaction referred to in the prelisting statement had been implemented.

Acsion has expressed ambitious plans with its proposed listing before. Financial Director Pieter Scholtz said Acsion believed it could achieve a 20%-25% return over each of the next four years.

Anaprop, founded in the 1980s by Greek immigrant Kiriakos Anastasiadis, planned to take up a primary listing on the JSE as Acsion. It said it would focus on redeveloping new projects and developing assets from Africa and southern Europe.

An initial raising of R200m was foreseen. The company would have a listed developed portfolio of about R3.25bn. Its weighted average cost of finance was stated as 7.4%. It would own mostly retail properties but some residential too.

Anastasiadis said Acsion aimed to double in size over the next five years and would then be in a position to pay dividends. "The key is that we are a company that reinvests its money in a very careful pursuit of capital growth."

Acsion experienced some legal issues before announcing its planned listing, involving two subsidiaries. But in its statement on Wednesday, Acsion said claims expressed by a subsidiary were not expected to have a material effect on the listing or the financial position of the company.

Another real-estate developer listing next week is that of Pivotal Fund. It announced on Wednesday it had already raised more than R1bn by placing 60-million shares at R17 each. On Monday, Pivotal will list 301-million shares on the JSE.

Source: I-Net Bridge

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