Property investment company RMB Holdings’ net asset value (NAV) per share, a key performance measure for real estate firms, declined almost one-tenth from a year ago, according to its latest interim report.
The company, valued at R819m on the JSE, said on Tuesday in its half-year results end-September that NAV per share fell 9.6% year on year to 238.6c, while diluted headline earnings per share (HEPS), which strips out impairments and one-off items, was down almost three-quarters to 3.8c.
The decline comes after its RMH Property subsidiary sold its stake in retail and office property company Atterbury Europe to Brightbridge for R1.75bn to reduce its exposure to Serbia, Cyprus and Romania, which have been affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
RMH now comprises a 27.5% position in local retail and office developer Atterbury Holdings, a 10.9% holding in inner city property specialists Divercity, as well as stakes in property funder Integer.
That led to RMH delivering a loss of R514m for the latest interim period, compared with a profit of R177m a year earlier.
Since the end of the reporting period, NAV has fallen 59% to 98.8c a share after a special dividend payout on October 10. RMB Holdings said in its outlook accompanying the results that it now expects to report an NAV per share of 77.5c-116.3c to end-March 2023, a decline of 58%-72% year on year.
The group said its earnings were also affected by the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic, with restrictions only being lifted in April 2022; the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal in April 2022, resulting in about R10bn in damage to infrastructure; high unemployment; rising interest rates; higher fuel and other living costs; and record load-shedding and ongoing problems at Eskom.
Economic recovery has been slow despite the Covid-19 pandemic easing, in large part because of the war in Ukraine that has led to volatility and uncertainty.
RMB Holdings played a part in the establishment of financial services businesses FirstRand, Discovery and OUTsurance before listing its insurance interests separately in 2011 as Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMI). In 2016, RMB Holdings expanded its investment strategy to include RMH Property.
Herman Bosman stepped down as CEO of RMB and as the financial director of RMI and RMH in November. Brian Roberts, former CEO of RMH Property, took over at the helm of RMB at the beginning of December.
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