Stor-Age Property REIT, which operates self-storage facilities in South Africa and the United Kingdom, grew its quarterly dividend 9.1 percent during the sixth-month period that ended on Sept. 30, to 51.3 cents per share. The growth was the third highest among property-focused stocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) during the period, according to the source.

Stor-Age was topped only by industrial-warehouse company Equites Property Fund (EPF) and retail-property owner Fairvest. EPF reported an 11.7 percent increase in its dividend to August, while Fairvest had a 9.9 percent bump to June. All three companies have at least 80 percent of their assets in South Africa, the source reported.

“This performance outstripped the JSE property sector in which dividend growth has been severely curtailed by weak economic growth, which has led to growing vacancies at a number of properties held by listed funds,” said Gavin Lucas, Stor-Age CEO.

Stor-Age expects to have up to 10 percent distribution growth for its full fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2019.

Lawrence Koikoi, an analyst with South Africa-based asset manager Stanlib, indicated Stor-Age’s success during the economic downturn was due to sound operational philosophy. “Like-for-like net property income growth of 9.8 percent off a high base from previous periods seems to indicate that the business model is proving itself as counter cyclical compared to traditional office, industrial and retail subsectors," he told the source.

Headquartered in Cape Town, Stor-Age was established in 2005 by Stor-Age Property Holdings Pty. Ltd. to acquire, develop and manage self-storage assets. Today, Stor-Age operates a 63-property portfolio, primarily in four South African metropolitan areas, that comprise approximately 414,000 square meters. It also has 10 projects under development. The company was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in November 2015. It acquired the U.K. Storage King portfolio in 2017.

Source:
BusinessDay, Self-Storage Puts Stor-Age Among Top Three Property Industry Performers