Stor-Age to list on A2X

Stor-Age – South Africa’s largest property fund – has been approved for a secondary listing on A2X Markets, and shares will be available for trade from 27 September 2022.

Stor-Age CEO Gavin Lucas said the company would retain its primary listing in the JSE, and its issued share capital will be unaffected.

Stor-Age has no costs, risks, or additional regulatory compliance due to its secondary listing on A2X.

“Our secondary listing on A2X only complements our primary listing on the JSE, providing our shareholders with the benefit of an additional platform to trade with added liquidity, narrower spreads and lower exchange fees,” Lucas said.

Stor-Age is South Africa’s only self-storage REIT on the JSE, with a market cap of approximately R6.5 billion.

Its South African portfolio is differentiated by its properties’ high visibility to passing traffic, easy access off busy arterial routes and proximity to the middle to upper-income suburbs.

Stor-Age also owns the sixth largest UK self-storage brand, Storage King, with its portfolio of properties representing more than 50% of the Group’s property assets by value.

Its South African portfolio is concentrated in four major cities – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. Its UK portfolio has a broad geographical representation across key cities and towns in England, including London.

The portfolio across South Africa and the UK comprise 85 properties, and an additional 14 properties are in the development pipeline.

The benefit of a secondary listing on A2X

A2X is a licensed stock exchange that provides a secondary listing venue for companies.

It is regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the Prudential Authority (SARB) under the Financial Markets Act and started trading in October 2017.

A2X appointed Strate as its central securities depository and operates within the South African settlement structure.

The exchange platform provides an efficient and cost-effective trading venue for secondary listings and trading shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and exchange-traded notes (ETNs).

“A2X uses technology developed by the UK’s Aquis Technologies, which provides exchange matching and surveillance systems and a clearing platform custom-built for A2X,” A2X CEO Kevin Brady said.

“The end-to-end costs of transacting on A2X are about 50% lower than at the other South African trading venues where the same shares can be traded,” he added.

Stor-Age joins a variety of other real estate investment trusts with a secondary listing on A2X, which include:

• GrowthPoint
• Equities Property Fund
• Fairvest
• NEPI Rockcastle
• SA Corporate Real Estate
• MAS PLC

Stor-Age’s listing will bring the number of instruments available for trade on A2X to 72, with a combined market capitalisation of approximately R5.3 trillion.