The portfolio of listed property stocks is valued at over R650-million and will be purchased from Sentinel Mining Industry Retirement Fund (Sentinel) and the Mine Employees Pension Fund (MEPF), collectively referred to as the Mine Pension Funds (MPF).

'The acquisition should boost Growthpoint's market capitalisation by around R450-million after taking into account the cash portion of the acquisition,' said Kuper.

Growthpoint will raise R200-million in cash from a consortium of banks and will issue more than 93 million new Growthpoint linked units at 480 cents to make up the balance of R450-million.

As a consequence, MPF increases its holding in Growthpoint to 69.9% from 58.6%. Growthpoint, managed by Investec Property Group, became the country's largest listed property loan stock company measured by market capitalisation after it acquired the physical property portfolio of the Mine Pension Funds in September 2001 in a transaction valued at almost R1.6-billion.

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