Blue-chip shopping centre owner Hyprop Investments announced on Tuesday that financial director Laurence Cohen was stepping down after nearly 15 years in the role.
He leaves a large gap at Hyprop, having been among the longest-serving executives in the listed-property sector.
Cohen, 45, is a chartered accountant who joined the group in October 2003 as the financial director of Hyprop Management Company after three years in Grant Thornton’s corporate-finance division.
The management company was internalised into Hyprop in line with global best practice.
"He was brilliant and we rate him. It’s a big loss to Hyprop but it shouldn’t really impact them with regard to executing on their strategy," said Wynand Smit, a research analyst at Anchor Stockbrokers.
During his tenure at Hyprop he chaired the SA Reit Association’s accounting and JSE committees. Cohen was also instrumental in developing best practice recommendations for the South African real estate investment trust sector.
He resigned from Hyprop with effect from August 1 "to pursue personal interests", the company said.
"Laurence has made a significant contribution during his tenure at Hyprop for which the board offers him its sincere thanks and wishes him well in his future endeavours," it said.
The appointment of a new financial director would be announced in due course.
Cohen said his preference would be to work in the property space given his "strong knowledge of the workings of the listed sector".
"I’ve been here for most of my career so far but I felt it was time to move onto other opportunities. When I joined Hyprop it was about a month before we did the Canal Walk deal and our assets were around R1.5bn. Now we have about R40bn in assets and a market cap of about R28bn," he said.
Hyprop has been one of the most popular property stocks on the JSE for decades because of its record of delivering consistent returns to investors. Investors said it was beneficial that he would be at the group until the end of July.
"He was an integral part of the company’s evolution into a high-quality shopping centre fund, as well as Hyprop’s investment into southeastern Europe through Hystead and into Africa," said Naeem Tilly of Catalyst Fund Managers.
"It is comforting to know that he will be around until August. This means that he will oversee the year-end results and be part of the possible Hystead listing."
Hyprop has forecast dividend growth of 8%-10% for its full financial year to June, meaning it will declare some of the best dividend growth in the listed property sector’s results season.
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