It’s always a pleasure to announce when one of our partners list on the JSE. Always a pleasure.. never a surprise. Here’s why it makes sense that Stor-Age lists

We’ve been both customer and partners with Stor-Age for a number of years and are proud to announce that they are listen on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. For those of you who don’t know about Stor-Age, they take the business of storing your goods to the next level – and by next level we mean they make it easy. Gone are the days of a garage in the sticks with a flea-ridden, abused dog walking around as the manager sits back in a boep-exposing vest, with a can of beer in one hand and a shotgun in the other.

No sir. At Stor-Age you cruise in, swipe your tag, park inside – go to you temperature controlled storage unit (in all sorts of sizes) and conveniently deal with your goods, with no paperwork or people to talk to. My kind of place.

Now listen to this – 8 facts you need to know:

1. Leading & largest self storage property fund in South Africa announces intention to list on JSE
2. South Africa’s only self storage portfolio of sufficient quality & scale
3. Niche recession-resilient asset class uncorrelated to traditional drivers of property
4. Business model based on global best practice
5. ‘Best of breed’ REIT structure adopted with internalised funds management & operations businesses
6. Significant secured pipeline of development assets to acquire into the REIT
7. Industry leading operations & digital platform
8. Decade long track record of successfully developing, tenanting & operating self storage assets

Check out the press release below:

South Africa’s largest self storage property fund, Stor-Age Property REIT Limited (‘Stor-Age’), announced today that it is set to list on the JSE in November as the first REIT of its kind. The decade-old group will list an initial R1.3 billion portfolio of quality, well-located self storage properties and is forecasting above-average distribution growth in the medium term.

Following in the footsteps of international self storage peers who have consistently outperformed the listed property sectors of the US, UK and Australia in recent years, Stor-Age aims to raise around R715 million from both institutional investors and from staff, customers and suppliers. The company is targeting a market capitalisation of around R1.2 billion on listing. The price per share will be finalised post the institutional bookbuild which will take place in week one of the two week offer period. The second week has been set aside for retail investors to participate.

CEO Gavin Lucas is confident that Stor-Age’s differentiators and strong market fundamentals bode well for take-up of the offers. Going forward he says: “Our experienced focus on occupancy, revenue management and cash flow will drive sustainable distribution growth.” He explains: the group will look to unlock further organic growth in the existing portfolio, expand its national footprint by third-party acquisitions or through the R1.5 billion pipeline over which it has a pre-emptive right of acquisition, and leverage its sophisticated revenue management model for growth.

Lucas concludes that Stor-Age will reschedule the listing should markets not be conducive to it. “Listing Stor-Age is a choice, not a necessity, and we will always act in the best interests of the company.” Notwithstanding, he remains confident that this is the appropriate time in the group’s journey to list.

“We have accumulated ten years as a profitable, respected operator with proven performance, and given the extraordinary prospects of this asset class, now is opportune to offer local investors first-time exposure to the growing, recession-resilient niche self storage asset class through an established low-risk vehicle.”

We’re so stoked and proud of what these guys have done.

Congrats to everyone at Stor-Age – now I’m off to buy some shares!