Accelerate Property Fund, co-owner of South Africa’s largest retail centre, has signed a new property development and asset management services agreement (PMA) that could hand an undivided 15% share of Fourways Mall to the managers who run the site. The change matters to the two current owners, Accelerate and Azrapart Proprietary Limited, to the managers Flanagan and Gerard Frontiers (F&G) and Luvon Investments, and to the mall’s tenants who watch ownership shifts for any impact on rent or foot traffic, BusinessTech reported.
The PMA runs for five years from February 2024, so it is expected to end in February 2029 unless the parties extend it. F&G and Luvon stay on as joint managers, overseeing day-to-day operations, tenant relations and general property administration, along with strategic portfolio optimisation, tenant mix, footfall and trading densities, and sustainability programmes. Their pay has three parts: monthly service fees, a performance-based fee when the contract ends, which they can take in cash or as an undivided equity share in the mall, and an option to buy a further undivided share, capped at 15%. When the contract ends, F&G and Luvon could between them hold up to 15% of Fourways Mall.
What the managers say they have delivered
According to Accelerate, the co-managers have already improved the mall’s performance since they took over in February 2024:
- Vacancies down from 18.8% in February 2024 to 6.6% in August 2026.
- Tenant turnover up from R226.3 million to R365.2 million over the same period.
- Average trading densities up from R1 816 to R2 711 per square metre.
- Average dwell time up from 1 hour 13 minutes to 1 hour 28 minutes.
- Footfall up from 1 069 780 people in September 2024, the first reading, to 1 392 271 in August 2026, and vehicle count up from 198 272 to 294 085.
The managers also oversaw waterproofing work, resolved compliance-related matters and managed The View, a luxury lifestyle food offering at the corner of Cedar and Witkoppen Roads. Going forward they are expected to keep reducing vacancies and improving trading densities, and to install a 6.3MW solar system. These are Accelerate’s figures and we have not verified them independently.
Why a new agreement was needed
The February 2024 appointment was deemed improper because Accelerate appointed the managers without first seeking shareholder approval. The JSE publicly censured the group and imposed a R500 000 penalty in August. The new PMA takes effect retroactively from February 2024 and is intended to regularise the appointment, on largely the same terms as the old one.
What it could mean for ownership
Accelerate owns a 50% undivided share of Fourways Mall, valued at R4.2 billion of an R8.4 billion total. Azrapart holds the other 50%. If the managers take the share option, the disposal of the minority interest is split equally between the two co-owners. On those numbers, and by our own arithmetic, each would go from 50% to 42.5% of the mall.
If the agreement is terminated before February 2029, the managers are guaranteed payouts ranging from R130 million if it ends in the third year to R150 million if it ends in the fifth.
The shareholder vote
The agreement has been signed but not yet approved by shareholders, which remains a suspensive condition that must be met by 17 December 2026. Accelerate has secured an irrevocable undertaking from a shareholder holding 50.7% of voting shares to vote in favour. Accelerate can cancel the PMA on three months’ notice if shareholders resolve to do so by a majority. Even then, the managers would still be entitled to their fees and to exercise the call option for 15% of the mall.
For tenants, day-to-day management stays with the same team. For investors in Accelerate, the questions are the size of the managers’ payout, the dilution of the fund’s 50% holding if the option is taken, and the fact that a shareholder vote can end the agreement without ending the managers’ rights under the option. Read more about similar developments in our Property section.
