Capitec Bank Limited entered into a sale of rental enterprise agreement to acquire The Liberty Life Building, Century City Boulevard from Spear Reit Limited (JSE:SEA) for ZAR 400 million on February 13, 2023. The Property, which forms part of Spear’s commercial office portfolio, was acquired by Spear in 2019, prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The application of the Disposal Consideration will reduce Spear’s loan to value ratio (“LTV”) by approximately 500 bps and the forecasted Spear group LTV, following the implementation of the Disposal, will be between 34% and 36%.

The anticipated date of the Disposal will be after the payment date of the final dividend for the 2023 financial year and post the implementation of the Island Urban Logistics Park acquisition. The Disposal is subject to the fulfilment of the condition precedent (“Condition Precedent”) that the Disposal has (to the extent necessary) been unconditionally approved by the Competition Authorities in terms of the Competition Act, No. 89 of 1998, or conditionally approved on conditions which are acceptable to the parties.

The Condition Precedent must be fulfilled by not later than 120 days after the Signature Date, which date may be extended by the parties in writing. The transaction is expected to complete during the month of September 2023. As of June 21, 2023, the Competition Authorities unconditionally approved the disposal on June 20, 2023.

Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr acted as advisor in the transaction.