Resilient REIT-owned Tubatse Crossing Mall in Burgersfort. Resilient has predicted good performances from its 28 shopping centres around South Africa in 2026, following a strong 2025 when vacancies overall only came in at 1.9%.
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Resilient Reit is in a strong position to achieve a good growth performance in 2026, even off the high base of 2025 when the dividend was raised 11.4% and the value of its portfolio was revised upward by 9.4%.
Chairman Alan Olivier said the South African economy is showing “promising signs of growth”, and consumer and retailer demand growth had been identified at the group’s shopping centres. Resilient has 28 centres in South Africa, worth R32,17 billion in total, each with at least three anchor tenants. Its centres include Galleria Mall, Tubatse Crossing and Highveld Mall, and it has investments in one retail centre in Spain and 4 in France.
“Resilient is pleased to return to an environment where lower interest rates are enabling income-enhancing projects. Construction is underway to extend Irene Village Mall and bulk earthworks to extend Tzaneen Lifestyle Centre have started,” he said in the integrated report released late last week. The extensions are expected to complete in the second half of 2026.
He said they continue to remain responsive to consumer demands and changes in retail trends, ensuring dominance in the areas in which the shopping centres operate.
"Resilient will continue to seek opportunities for growth with every opportunity robustly considered to ensure that decisions made will enhance the quality of the portfolio and the delivery of the group’s strategy for shareholders,” he said.
A well-established energy strategy had seen the installation of solar systems at each of its 28 South African shopping centres, resulting in the supply of approximately 39.8% of Resilient’s total energy requirements.
To further improve sustainability and contain costs, two large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) had been piloted at two shopping centres, The Grove Mall and Irene Village Mall, over time, which had performed in line with expectations and had allowed for arbitrage, whereby the shopping centres are able to reduce grid consumption during peak tariff times by discharging the BESS, and recharging them when tariffs are cheaper.
In 2025, a further two BESS were installed, and the board had approved a further six BESS for installation at shopping centres during 2026. The board had approved an additional 27.2 MWh of additional battery energy storage capacity for 2026 - by the end of 2025, total storage capacity came to 20.7 MWh across the portfolio.
Solar generation capacity had also increased to 88.0 MWp by the end of December 2025, from 76.5 MWp the year before. Some R239,5 million (Resilient’s share: R218,9m) was spent on energy-related projects on the portfolio in 2025.
CEO Johann Kriek said their energy strategy leverages the use of batteries to expand solar installation benefits, contain costs and effectively manage demand, and it will be one of the factors that would contribute to the group’s continuing strong performance in 2026.
In addition, strategic asset management initiatives initiated in 2025 were expected to benefit the portfolio in the coming year, he said.
Offshore distributable earnings would be enhanced by favourable forward exchange rates that were currently in place.
The board forecasted growth in distribution of at least9% or 534.56 cents per share for the 2026 financial year versus 490.42 cents a share in 2025, assuming there is no change in interest rates.
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