Pilane Mall licensing issues cost PrimeTime P2m
Isaac Pinielo | Wednesday November 29, 2017 17:06
Presenting the financial results for the year ended August 31, 2017, PrimeTime managing director, Alexander Kelly said the tenanting of Pilane Crossing has been a hurdle with partial settlement of the widely reported trade licence problem only being achieved more than a year after the centre opened.
“With several large shops standing empty for months, this has put pressure on the initial tenants in the centre and we thank them for their tolerance in this regard,” he said.
He indicated that the first year of the mall has seen some tenant failures, noting that PrimeTime has suffered financially with a total loss of rental income and bad debts in excess of P2 million for the financial year reported on.
However, Kelly said conditions are looking more positive for the 2018 financial year with several shops having commenced trading in the last few weeks, namely, Clicks, Jet, PEP and Ackermans.
He also said the extension to the centre is for a drive-through Kentucky Fried Chicken on a five-year lease due to open in December 2017. “Elsewhere in our portfolio existing tenancies were successfully renewed during the year. Notable ones to mention are Cashbuild and FNB at Boiteko Junction Serowe,” Kelly said.He further stated that at Prime Plaza in the central business district (CBD), the Companies and Intellectual Property Agency (CIPA) took over CEDA House on a five-year lease and that Cresta renegotiated their lease at Morula House for an extended five-year period.
“At the end of August 2017, vacancies stood at an average of three percent across the portfolio. While higher than in the prior year, we believe this reflects good performance given the ever-more challenging conditions in the occupier market. At the time of writing, some of these vacant units have been let,” said Kelly. Meanwhile, the managing director said the PrimeTime Group has achieved year-on-year increases in both revenues and operating profits before fair value adjustments.
He said the cumulative net fair value adjustments for the year have negatively impacted on the final bottom line net profit figure and hence earnings per linked unit.
He blamed this on a number of factors including the consideration of the remaining period on ground leases, low occupancy levels in certain of properties and the suppression of rentals in the commercial sector.