July 14 2023
Delta Property Fund, the JSE listed government tenant focused real estate investment trust (Reit) has employed a new CEO as it tries to make its shareholders confident that it can turn around its ailing fortunes.
Fikile Mhlontlo joins from next week. His LinkedIn profile calls him a “Career Executive Director, Leader and CFO”. His work experience shows that he has been in interim roles at varied groups when they have been struggling.
Delta has has legal squabbles with its founder and original CEO, Sandile Nomvete.
His most recent role was that of executive director and interim Chief Financial Officer at South African Airways. He held this position from April 2021 to May 2023. He has also worked as an interim chief executive at Concor Construction and was financial director and chief financial officer at Denel from October 2008 to August 2016.
Delta is in intensive care as a business, with high debt levels and vacancies. It has appointed numerous people to help sell some of its assets, including Lance Chalwin-Milton, an auctioneer. Delta needs to raise cash to ease pressure on its balance sheet.
The reported in June that in the year to end-February 2023, its loan-to-value (LTV) ratio climbed from 57% to 61.4% largely because of the R833.6m reduction in the fair value of its portfolio. An LTV measures a fund’s debt compared to the value of its assets. South African fund managers tend to want to invest in Reits with LTVs below 40% as anything above this suggests come financial strain in the business.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za