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Lighthouse pushes forward with the Iberian strategy (JSE: LTE)

To complement the existing portfolio in Spain, there’s now an acquisition in Portugal

Lighthouse Properties has made no secret of its ambitions in Iberia, part of a broader strategy targeting “dominant and defensive malls in growing regions” – a sound approach if you ask me. Retail property landlords benefit tremendously from regions with decent growth in consumer spending.

The latest transaction is the acquisition of Alegro Montijo, a regional mall in the municipality of Montijo. There are a number of important tenants in the mall (like Primark and Zara) and it falls under the broader Lisbon metropolitan area, so this is in the economic heart of Portugal.

The deal value is €177.8 million before debt, or €76.3 million net of existing senior bank debt in the property entity. The net initial yield for the acquisition is 7.2%. Lighthouse will fund the deal from existing cash resources.

Following this acquisition, the Iberian portfolio will constitute 72.2% of the pro rata fair value of Lighthouse’s directly held properties.

Little Bites:

• Director dealings:
  • I would pay very close attention to this one: an associate of the co-founder of Mr Price (JSE: MRP) sold shares in the company worth a whopping R42 million. After the recent GNU-inspired rally, that’s a signal for me that the shares are overvalued.
  • Certain directors and prescribed officers of Dis-Chem (JSE: DCP) sold shares worth nearly R1.6 million. This was linked to forfeitable share options and the announcement wasn’t explicit on whether this was only the taxable portion.
  • A director of Stefanutti Stocks (JSE: SSK) bought shares worth nearly R38k.
  • A director of a subsidiary of Vunani (JSE: VUN) has sold shares worth R27.5k.

• Here’s one you don’t see every day: Sea Harvest (JSE: SHG) will ask shareholders to amend the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI) to allow for the appointment of directors over the age of 75. This is due to a director nomination made by Terrasan (which holds 16.7% in Sea Harvest) to the board of Sea Harvest.

• With the unbundling of Rainbow Chicken (JSE: RBO) concluded, the company reminded the market that Remgro holds 80.2% of the shares in Rainbow, as Remgro held this percentage in RCL Foods which unbundled Remgro. In other words, this is a tightly held register.