Azrapart, co-owner of Fourways Mall, is appealing a recent high court order placing the company in business rescue after failing to repay debts amounting to R2.3bn.
The creditors are Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and Investec, who brought the application after Azrapart missed repayment deadlines.
Accelerate Property Fund, Azrapart’s partner at Fourways Mall, is also under pressure. GCR Ratings, an affiliate of Moody’s, downgraded Accelerate’s national scale long and short-term issuer ratings. Concurrently, it has affirmed the group’s senior secured notes national scale long-term issue credit ratings, with the outlook revised from “negative” to “evolving”.
Colin Strime of Fluxmans Attorneys, acting on behalf of Azrapart, said: “Azrapart is not currently in business rescue. On June 5 2025, the Bloemfontein high court, under judge [Phillip] Loubser, handed down a judgment placing Azrapart into business rescue. However, Azrapart has since filed an application for leave to appeal that decision.”
Strime said that the lodging of the application suspends the court order.
“No date has yet been allocated for the hearing of the application for leave to appeal. All indications are that it will only be heard in the next court term,” he said.
The high court placed Azrapart in business rescue after the company failed to provide certainty over a promised R2.6bn capital injection from UK-based Redcore Hospitality. In a judgment in March, the court had found Azrapart to be financially distressed but held off on a final order to allow the funding deal to materialise.
With no confirmation of the transaction, the court ruled that business rescue was justified.
In an affidavit submitted to the court on April 24 Azrapart said the anticipated R2.6bn funding from Redcore had yet to materialise. It said Redcore remained committed to the transaction and had instructed Corpay to transfer the funds from its UK account, pending regulatory approvals. Despite repeated assurances, Azrapart conceded that no formal proof of funds had been provided.
Loubser said he doubted UK-based Redcore Hospitality would deliver the promised R2.6bn to Azrapart, noting that no proof of funds had been provided.
RMB and Investec argue they are being prejudiced because Fourways Mall — which is being used as security for Azrapart’s debt — cannot be properly managed or maintained while the company remains outside formal business rescue.
Last month, Accelerate undertook a R100m rights issue to fund upgrades and improvements at the mall, on top of a R200m rights issue in June 2024.
In a trading update for the year ended March 2025, the company said it had sold R700m worth of properties in the year. A week later it announced the sale of its proportionate ownership in Portside office building in Cape Town for R580m.
Note: June 17 2025
The spelling of Azrapart has been corrected in this story.
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