---
title: "Resilient posts double-digit growth and Nepi Rockcastle heads for the Spanish sunshine"
description: "The Resilient real estate investment trust lives up to its name with double-digit growth, while Europe-focused Nepi Rockcastle wants to get in on the action in Spain."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "WHERE TO INVEST"
author: "The Finance Ghost"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/thefinanceghost/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-08-16-resilient-posts-double-digit-growth-and-nepi-rockcastle-heads-for-the-spanish-sunshine/"
published: "2026-08-16T19:55:25"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 827
---

# Resilient posts double-digit growth and Nepi Rockcastle heads for the Spanish sunshine

> The Resilient real estate investment trust lives up to its name with double-digit growth, while Europe-focused Nepi Rockcastle wants to get in on the action in Spain.

By The Finance Ghost · Published 16 August 2026, 21:55 SAST

## Key points
- Resilient Reit delivered a meaty 11.7% dividend-per-share increase for the six months to June 2026 despite major refurbishments at six of 28 malls; retail sales rose 2.9% and lease deal metrics were strong (renewals +2.5%, new leases +7.1%), with 5.2% escalation clauses and growing investment in renewables.
- Portfolio skews to lower LSM, commuter-focused malls (no Western Cape exposure) and is highly weighted to apparel tenants – TFG ~12%, Pepkor and Mr Price ~9% – with KZN outgrowing peers; about 20% of exposure is offshore via a 27.3% stake in Lighthouse, whose rand distributions are up 11.2%.
- Balance sheet health is a tailwind: group LTV 36.1% (SA 41.7%, Europe 15.2% non‑recourse), while interest costs fell ~70bp and refinancing narrowed funding margins, shifting value from banks to shareholders.
- Nepi Rockcastle is buying Spain’s MegaPark Barakaldo for €254m (R4.7bn) – 97.3% occupied, 1.1m catchment, 6.8% net yield with reversionary upside – a timely Iberian play as unemployment drops below 10% and tourism booms.

## Content

The property sector remains a hive of activity on the JSE. In the past week alone, we saw major news from two of the big local names.

### Resilient Reit delivers for shareholders

Let’s deal with Resilient Reit first, a fund that has more than lived up to its name. For the six months to June 2026, dividend per share growth was a meaty 11.7%.

Perhaps most impressively, this was achieved despite the group undertaking major refurbishments at six of its 28 retail centres. This included changes to anchor tenants, as well as the right-sizing of large stores.

Retail sales increased by 2.9% for the period despite all the renovations. Although this is below inflation, it’s a decent outcome in the context of broader consumer pressures in South Africa.

As an indication of tenant demand in the underlying malls in the portfolio, leases were renewed at a 2.5% premium to the previous rentals. New leases were locked in at a 7.1% premium to the outgoing tenants. These are strong positive reversions that should support the planned growth of earnings.

As protection against inflation in the cost base, leases were signed with escalations of 5.2%. Resilient also invests extensively in renewable energy projects, providing both energy security and a hedge against the inflationary impact of Eskom.

### Underlying tenant and regional exposure

Resilient’s strategy is focused on retail centres with at least three anchor tenants. The fund discloses its biggest underlying tenant exposures, with The Foschini Group at the top of the pile (nearly 12% of contractual rental revenue). Next up is Pepkor at over 9%, with Mr Price at roughly the same level. Shoprite Checkers is only around 7%. This shows how important the apparel sector is to landlords in South Africa.

Another notable element of the portfolio is that Resilient doesn’t have any properties in Western Cape. This is at odds with the recent trend in the South African property market, with capital having shifted from other provinces towards Cape Town.

Resilient’s skew towards lower LSM malls means that the fund benefits from the ongoing shift from informal to formal shopping on busy commuter routes and near townships. The best-performing province was KwaZulu-Natal with growth of 4.4%, while Eastern Cape sales were down 2.5%.

In a far flashier part of the world, Resilient also has exposure to properties in Western Europe. The fund has a strategic ownership stake of 27.3% in Lighthouse Properties, a JSE-listed property fund focused on France and the Iberian Peninsula. Resilient is also invested alongside Lighthouse in properties in France and Spain.

If you combine direct and indirect exposure, then just more than a fifth of Resilient’s exposure is offshore. This also means that Resilient’s dividend is affected directly by the distributions coming out of Lighthouse Properties. Lighthouse is doing really well at the moment, with distributions up by 11.2% in the latest period (in rand terms).

### A healthy balance sheet with competitive funding rates

Resilient’s balance sheet has been a major boost to earnings growth in this period, with interest rates dropping by 70 basis points vs the prior period. Through the refinancing of interest facilities, Resilient decreased the funding margin (i.e. the pricing on the loans). This is a double-whammy impact of lower prevailing interest rates and more competitive funding rates, helping to shift some of the economics from the bankers to shareholders.

The fund’s loan-to-value ratio looks healthy at 36.1%. If you dig deeper, you’ll find a 41.7% ratio in South Africa and a 15.2% ratio in Europe with no recourse to the South African balance sheet.

### Nepi Rockcastle wants some of the action in Spain

Nepi Rockcastle is a big part of why eastern Europe is popular among JSE property investors. Where the likes of Vukile and Lighthouse have focused on the Iberian Peninsula, Nepi Rockcastle has found success in places such as Poland.

But now, Nepi wants some of that Iberian goodness.

It has announced the €254-million (R4.7-billion) acquisition of MegaPark Barakaldo, a centre in Bilbao that was built roughly 20 years ago. With a 97.3% occupancy rate and a catchment area of around 1.1 million inhabitants, this is the kind of flagship property that fits very nicely into a listed property fund.

The net acquisition yield is 6.8%. Nepi notes the reversionary potential in this yield, which is just a fancy way of believing it can extract value at this level. This would be driven by a combination of underlying earnings growth and potential improvement in the valuation metrics of the property.

Spain has proven to be a lucrative market for local property funds, with unemployment in the country dropping below 10% for the first time since 2008. Tourism numbers are breaking new records and Spanish malls are taking full advantage of the cash flowing into the country.

Given the success enjoyed by other JSE-listed funds in the region, as well as all the experience that Nepi Rockcastle has in Europe, this seems like a sensible move.**DM**