There is an awkward twist buried in the JSE's latest public censure: the deal that broke the rules also seems to have worked. The stock exchange has publicly censured Accelerate Property Fund and fined it R500,000 — wholly suspended for three years — for appointing managers to run Fourways Mall, its biggest asset and South Africa's largest shopping centre, without the shareholder vote its listing rules require.
What Accelerate did
Back in December 2023, Accelerate told the market, through a stock-exchange notice, that it had appointed Flanagan & Gerard — and later the Moolman Group and Luvon Investments — as asset and property managers for Fourways Mall, on a five-year deal starting January 2024. The managers began operating from 1 February 2024. When the deal's conditions lapsed in November 2024, the arrangement was declared of “no force and effect” — yet the manager simply stayed on, month to month. The JSE said two things were missing: shareholder approval, and shareholders' right to cancel the agreement before it expired. That December 2023 notice had even said a shareholder circular was being prepared — but the vote never came, and the appointment went ahead unilaterally. The exchange says it only became aware of the problem in August 2024, after Accelerate's annual results for the year to March 2024 noted that “the impact of the appointment of the Asset and Property Manager” was already evident.
Why it still matters
The exchange ruled this a breach of paragraph 13.40 of its listing requirements, and pointedly noted the breach is ongoing — because shareholders still haven't approved the arrangement. It has ordered Accelerate to comply “forthwith”. The R500,000 penalty stays suspended for three years, provided the company doesn't breach similar rules again — so the censure is more a reputational rap than a cash blow, at least for now.
The irony is hard to miss: Fourways Mall had fallen into decline amid rising vacancies and thin foot traffic, and the very manager appointed without a vote appears to have turned it around. Now Accelerate has to make the arrangement official — or unwind it — before the regulator's patience runs out.
