Despite COVID-19, Grit Real Estate achieves 91% rental collection

Research . 3 years ago

Despite COVID-19, Grit Real Estate achieves 91% rental collection

Share this post

Subscribe to our newsletter

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic mired with mass concessions, re-negotiation, restructuring activity and more, GRIT Real Estate, a pan-African real estate company on Friday, July 3rd 2020, stated in their Trading and Portfolio Performance Update that for the period March to June 2020, the Group collected 91% of the value of its contracted…


In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic mired with mass concessions, re-negotiation, restructuring activity and more, GRIT Real Estate, a pan-African real estate company on Friday, July 3rd 2020, stated in their Trading and Portfolio Performance Update that for the period March to June 2020, the Group collected 91% of the value of its contracted revenue, including prepaid rentals of USD$4.6mn. Over this same period, it has provided rental concessions of 8.4% and rental deferrals of 12.7% of its Grit attributed contracted rental revenue.

The Chief Executive Officer; Bronwyn Corbett said:

“The group continues to focus on further strengthening and defending its current position and delivering effectively on its investment strategy over the short and longer-term. Although the full impact of Covid-19 remains uncertain, the company has successfully focused on strong rent collections and tenant initiatives.” 

In June, the company collected 72.9% of its rental revenue while it agreed on short-term concessions on 9.8% of its rental revenue, primarily in the retail sector.

Following GRIT’s delisting from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), GRIT said Botswana Development Corp Ltd. and Zep-Re will acquire shares held by investors on its JSE register for ZAR14.90 each.

AnfaPlace Mall, Morocco, recently renovated by GRIT.

Listed property companies in Nigeria including UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) recently announced a successful N16bn Rights Issue at The Nigerian Stock Exchange. However, they have not disclosed performance during COVID.

GRIT’s rental collections, especially during March – June are commendable particularly with GRIT’s rentals predominantly collected monthly, of which 94.1% are collected in US$, Euro or pegged currencies. However, this might not be consistent with the already recorded fall in rental revenue and increased rental concessions in June, rising vacancy trends predominantly in the retail segment and postponement of rental collections till September by the Government of Mauritius which is expected to slow down cash collections.