The fund has shown phenomenal growth in its first year as a JSE-listed property fund growing its property portfolio by R1.95 billion (R2.65 billion including unconditional acquisitions).

Shaun Rai, one of the founding shareholders and Executive Director of Ascension, attributes its success to the strong support received from the investment community and a dedicated management team.

"The key driver for our continued success is focusing on our acquisition strategy of acquiring larger, centrally located commercial office buildings in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Nelspruit with market or under-market related rentals at yield accretive prices," says Rai. "The portfolio is 68% tenanted by government in line with our strategic focus on this market. Strong support by the investment community allowed us to raise over R1.1 billion in new capital since the start of the financial year."

Ascension have met their distribution forecast of 38 cents per A-linked unit and delivered 18.8 cents per B-linked unit, slightly ahead of its forecast of 18.71 cents per unit. Rai furthermore added "we are confident of continuing to achieve our forecast distributions, which for the 2014 year are 39.9 cents per A-linked unit and 22.5 cents per B-linked unit."

On 26 June 2013 the company obtained approval from the JSE for its conversion to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with effect from 1 July 2013.

"I would like to thank my fellow directors, the management team, our employees, investors, tenants and other stakeholders for their commitment and support during the past year" said Rai.