Owner of South Africa’s biggest shopping mall making a comeback

Accelerate Property Fund expects a significant rebound in earnings for the first half of its 2026 financial year as its restructuring efforts start to bear fruit, aided by an R82.5 million insurance settlement.

Accelerate owns Fourways Mall, the largest shopping centre in South Africa, as well as various other retail, industrial, and commercial properties across the country.

In recent years, the company has come under immense pressure, as it experienced financial and operational struggles at some of its biggest assets.

In February 2025, Accelerate announced that its overall long and short-term issuer credit rating was dropped from B(ZA) to C(ZA).

This was due to the increased risk of the company experiencing a near-term default or distressed debt exchange on its short-term debt.

This came as the company had been struggling significantly at its most valuable asset, Fourways Mall. The mall is 50% owned by Accelerate and underwent a major revamp and relaunch in 2019.

While this expansion made Fourways Mall the largest mall in South Africa, it did not help stem its poor financial performance.

The shopping centre’s high and increasing vacancy rates meant a decline in the mall’s net rent per square meter.

This also weighed on Accelerate’s share price, which declined by over 50% over the last three years.

To address these problems, Accelerate implemented a new strategy at Fourways Mall to reestablish it as a top-tier shopping destination.

This plan included partnering with Flanagan & Gerard, a property development and investment company, as the strategic asset managers and Moolman Group as the property managers.

The new strategy was aimed at improving signage for seamless navigation, introducing new tenants, and deploying backup power solutions.

It further sought to improve security through better parking area lighting and upgraded security measures. The plan also included optimising traffic flow, enlarging parking bays, and revitalising the surrounding area.

A much-needed boost

On Thursday, 27 November, Accelerate released a trading update that showed it is started to reap the rewards of this new strategy.

The trading statement outlined Accelerate’s expected earnings for the six months ended 30 September 2025, which marks the first half of the group’s 2026 financial year.

Accelerate said it expects its distributable earnings to be between R56 million and R58 million, a significant turnaround from the R11 million loss it reported in the first half of its 2025 financial year.

“The increase in distributable earnings reflects the restructuring initiatives that have been

implemented and that are currently in progress, as well as the insurance settlement payment,” the company said.

The settlement payment refers to a litigation process Accelerate had entered into regarding business interruption claims as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

The company explained in its 2025 Annual Report that, during the pandemic, it suffered substantial losses due to the business interruption caused by the outbreak.

Prior to the pandemic, Accelerate had obtained insurance against such losses and consequently submitted a claim against its insurers. 

However, the insurers refused to indemnify the losses and legal action was instituted

In September 2025, Accelerate informed the market that it had entered into a settlement agreement for the insurance claims.

The parties agreed to a settlement of R82.5 million, excluding VAT, for Accelerate’s 50% portion, which is set to boost the company’s upcoming interimresults.

Despite the recovery in earnings, Accelerate warned shareholders that it would not be declaring a distribution for the six-month period.

This is due to its working capital cash flow forecast, expected working capital requirements, and capital expenditure requirements.

Accelerate plans to publish its interim results for the six months through September 2025 on or about Friday, 28 November 2025.