Blouberg, Blaauwberg, Cape Town – South Africa

Last month the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) made a surprise bid to buy out CBS Property, the highly rated Cape-based property fund. The PIC, which basically represents the Government Employees Pension Fund, already holds 13% of CBS.If the deal is successful it will follow hard on the heels of a host of similar deals, most notably Spearhead (acquired by Redefine), Prima Property (now part of Apex-Hi), Good Cape (acquired by Calulo) and Paramount (now controlled by Growthpoint).

And don’t forget that unlisted landmark properties like Canal Walk (now owned by Hyprop) and the V&A Waterfront have also been snapped up by well heeled outsiders.

The last significant Cape property contender Atlas (which owns the Bayside Mall in Tableview and Somerset Mall) also looks set for corporate action with Acucap building a meaningful stake in the group. Atlas was trading under cautionary when CBN went to press.

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