Stor-Age, SA’s only specialist self-storage real estate investment trust (Reit), has kept its annual payment little changed as it reported a strong performance for the year to end-March, with rental income and net property operating income up 14.8% and 14.4% respectively.
Property revenue was up 14.7% to R1.2bn, while distributable earnings rose 0.4% to R562.7m
The group declared a final dividend of 56.81c per share from income reserves, taking the total annual dividend to 118.17c from 118.14c a year ago.
The group’s portfolio comprises 103 trading properties across SA (60) and the UK (43), providing storage to 52,000 customers. The combined value of the portfolio, including properties managed in JV partnerships, was R17.3bn at end-March, with the maximum lettable area, including the pipeline and ongoing developments, exceeding 650,000m².
The company ended the year with a loan-to-value ratio of 31.4% with ore than 85% of net debt subject to hedging and a closing occupancy of 90.2%.
The company said the much-needed relief from high interest rates had yet to materialise as central banks remained cautious on monetary policy and inflation concerns with the “higher for longer” narrative persisting.
“Over the past year, we delivered exceptionally strong results in SA and though the UK presented a more challenging environment compared to the last few years, the business is well positioned from a strategic, financial and operational perspective in both markets.
“We will continue to consider acquisition and development opportunities in SA, albeit [remaining] very circumspect with capital allocation. Our offshore growth is constrained by a high cost of capital and the capital-light management strategy remains the preferred option for growth in international markets,” it said.
The board expects its distributable income per share to be about 122c-126c for the 2025 financial year.
Since its listing in 2015, Stor-Age has maintained a 100% dividend payout ratio. However, given the current high cost of capital, and in line with the prudent management of its financial position, the board was considering lowering the payout ratio to 90%-95% of distributable income, it said.
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