In line with its strategic roadmap, the Group continues to focus on its core precincts with the super-regional Mall of Africa being the anchor retail destination in Waterfall City.
07 May 2024 – Attacq Limited (“Attacq”), the JSE-listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and strategic development partner in Waterfall City, today announces that its 70% held subsidiary, AWIC, has acquired the remaining 20% stake in Mall of Africa from the Atterbury Group. AWIC currently holds an 80% stake in the asset.
The Mall of Africa is one of South Africa’s leading super regional malls across all performance metrics, and anchors Waterfall City, a growing, large scale mixed-use precinct encompassing residential, logistics and collaboration hubs as well as two strongly performing hotels, all of which provide high volumes of quality foot traffic to the mall.
As of 31 December 2023, the mall’s compounded annual trading density growth over the past three years was 16.1% whilst its rent to turnover ratio was healthy at 7.5%. Going forward, the mall also stands to benefit from the continued densification of Waterfall City as AWIC rolls out its development pipeline of residential, logistics and collaboration hubs.
Attacq CEO, Jackie van Niekerk, comments: “We are delighted to announce this transaction as the Mall of Africa is undoubtedly one of Attacq’s flagship retail assets. As Waterfall City continues to densify, sole ownership of the mall will allow control over the asset in influencing growth and trade, and we aim for Mall of Africa to remain one of SA’s top-performing super-regional malls.
Furthermore, in March we indicated to the market during our interim results presentation that we would look to acquire key assets after disposing of the Group’s MAS shares and this transaction demonstrates our commitment to delivering against what we had promised.”
The iconic Mall of Africa recently celebrated its eighth birthday and opened its doors in 2016 as South Africa’s largest shopping mall ever built in a single phase, with over 130 000m2 of fully occupied retail space, and features leading international apparel brands and national favourites. The mall is also home to Attacq’s SOOK Space, an on-demand leasing solution aimed at small business enterprise needs and emerging entrepreneurs. Recently, Attacq announced the opening of six brand new rooftop Padel courts in September, adding an additional lifestyle element to the asset that includes the Waterfall Park and also features Bounce indoor trampoline park aimed at the younger demographic.