In its first full year as a listed industrial REIT on the JSE, Collins Property Group reported distributable income grew from R311 million in February 2024 to R361 million in February 2025, and distributable income per share (“DIPS”) increased from R0.94 in February 2024 to R1.09 in February 2025.
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In light of these results Collins has declared a final dividend of 50c per ordinary share taking the total dividend to the year ended February 2025 to R1.00 compared to the R0.90 for the February 2024 year. Total assets remained consistent at R12.2bn.
Collins MD Kevin Searle commented on the company’s continued ability to navigate the uncertain business conditions. “This is the Group’s first full year trading as a REIT. The focus remains to grow distributable income in a sustainable and predictable manner. To do this one needs a property portfolio that can weather the storms, which comes down to the quality of the asset and the income stream derived from it.”
“The Group’s loan to value ratio reduced to 49.8% from 51%, on the back of conservative valuations as demonstrated by Investment Properties only being written up by 1.7% and our vacancy rate improving from 3.9% at February 2024 to a mere 1.8% at February 2025. Additionally, the net asset value per share has increased by 7% to R16.15 which offers shareholders a total return for the year at R2.02/share.” Searle said.
Geographical spread
Historically, the bulk of Collins’ portfolio has been located in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The company is continuing to diversify its geographical spread by developing convenience shopping centres, a popular asset class, in the Western Cape.
Searle said that, in addition to the Western Cape, the Group intends to expand its footprint further into Western Europe, where it currently owns or part-owns properties in The Netherlands and Austria. To raise the necessary capital for this expansion, non-core properties in the portfolio are identified and offered for sale on an ongoing basis.
“Should all properties in the present sales pipeline be transferred to new owners, these sales will generate around R452m cash for expansion overseas.”
Looking forward to the year ahead, Searle is optimistic that with the possible falls in the interest rate and inflation, this would provide stimulus to business confidence and the property sector.
