| Thu 12 Feb 2004, 13:41 | | Liberty's founder sets date for his departure |
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Liberty's founder sets date for his departure
February 12, 2004
By Edward West
Cape Town - Donald Gordon, the South African business entrepreneur who founded the Liberty insurance group, plans to stand down next year as executive chairman of Liberty International, a shopping centre property group listed in Johannesburg and London.
Gordon, who moved to London in 1999 to make another fortune in property, said yesterday at the presentation of Liberty International's results for the year to December, that after a career in business that had spanned nearly 50 years, it was time to step down as executive chairman.
He intended to do so no later than June next year, the day that Liberty International will celebrate it's 25th birthday.
He and his family hold the largest shareholding in Liberty International at 21 percent, a stake that he has been building up progressively since 1999.
"After a further year of outstanding financial results, with high-quality assets and a powerful capital base, I have considerable confidence in the long-term prospects for the group," he said in a statement.
Property activities that are not related to shopping centres are operated by the Capital & Counties subsidiary. It had been resilient over the past two years in a difficult market, he said.
The Capital Shopping Centres subsidiary is responsible for about 80 percent of Liberty's activities. Six of the nine centres in the group were rated among the UK's top 16 shopping centres, Gordon said.
The three new centres - Norwich, Cardiff and Oxford - would increase the scale to 12 centres, while there were also substantial property developments in hand.
David Fischel, the chief executive, said vacancies at the group's shopping centres were at an all-time low - there were 10 vacancies out of 1 400 retail units. This indicated demand for retail space in centres in the UK.
However, the commercial and office markets in the UK were still under pressure. Most of Capital & Counties' businesses were in the West End, which was producing slightly better returns than other areas.
In the past year, headline earnings a share increased 7 percent to 27.45p.
The annual dividend a share was lifted 5.3 percent to 25p. Net assets a share, a good measure of the value of property companies, increased 13.5 percent to £9.06.
There were property developments worth about £1.3 billion in the pipeline.
Liberty's share price rose 39c to R87.40 on the JSE Securities Exchange yesterday.
