Some of the JSE's better property news this year is being written in Spanish. Lighthouse Properties, the Malta-based owner of shopping centres in Spain, Portugal and France, lifted the distributable earnings behind its dividend by 9.7% in the six months to end-June. Underlying the payout, distributable income grew almost 11%, outpacing the per-share figure as recent acquisitions bedded in. The lift came as two Spanish deals, Espacio Mediterraneo and Alcala Magna, began pulling their weight, the first delivering a full six-month contribution and the second adding two months of income. Espacio Mediterraneo's full-period run was the single biggest contributor to the earnings lift.
Shoppers kept spending
Across the group's centres, tenant sales rose 7.9% and footfall climbed 3%, while rent collections held firm at 98.7% of billings and like-for-like net property income rose 4.5%. Those firm collections near 99% and near-full occupancy point to resilient demand across its Iberian malls despite a mixed European consumer backdrop. Revenue grew 10.7% to 77 million euros, about R1.43 billion, headline earnings reached 1.52 euro cents a share, and the group's debt against assets stayed broadly stable at 35.9%. Its vacancy rate, a measure of empty space, edged lower after Zara and the Lefties brand were introduced at the H2O centre. Spain did the heavy lifting, with like-for-like net property income up 5.6%. Portugal delivered against a stronger economy that grew 2.5% in the second quarter, with tenant sales up 9.5% and the portfolio effectively fully let, while France, despite GDP expanding just 0.2%, still grew like-for-like income 6.6%.
Fresh leadership, a bigger payout
The results land amid a leadership refresh: David Swarts took over as CFO in June, Laurian McGonigal became COO in July, and CEO Justin Muller relocated from Amsterdam to Madrid in August to sit closer to the Iberian operations. On the strength of the numbers, Lighthouse raised its full-year dividend guidance to about 3 euro cents a share, up from 2.95 cents, lifting expected growth from 6.9% to 8.7%.
For South African investors starved of local retail-property growth, a rand-hedge landlord with euro-denominated income compounding in Europe is a quietly compelling story to watch.
