One of South Africa’s most esteemed property businesses, the Atterbury Group, celebrates 20 years of successful operation at the same time as the country marks two decades of democracy in South Africa.
Twenty years after its founding, Atterbury, the driving force behind a growing number of SA’s landmark commercial property developments, continues to build quality properties and deliver performance for its investors.
Atterbury’s business is conducted through two main companies: Atterbury Property Holdings for developments and, for investment, Attacq Limited, which successfully listed on the JSE in October 2013. Atterbury now comprises about 58 trading companies. Together Atterbury and Attacq have over 150 employees and offices in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Mauritius.
However, Atterbury wasn’t always the property power-house it is today. It has grown from humble roots. Louis van der Watt and Francois van Niekerk formed Atterbury in 1994, at the same time that SA’s democracy was born.
Louis is a natural entrepreneur. His first property transaction was at the tender age of eleven. He convinced his parents to loan him money to purchase, and immediately resell at a profit, a holiday timeshare property.
From a young age, Louis was fascinated by buildings – their design and location. He met Francois van Niekerk as an article clerk for Deloitte at Francois’s computer business, Infotech. Francois had recently developed his first building and had more land available.
Humble beginnings
When completing his articles in 1994, Louis joined Francois to form Atterbury Property Group with capital well below R1 million. For five years, Louis and Francois were Atterbury’s only employees.
The founders each held a 33% share in Atterbury, and 34% was held by the Atterbury Trust. This started a generous distribution of ownership in the company and an energetic involvement with disadvantaged communities.
Louis recalls: “Our biggest challenge initially was funding. Fortunately Francois’s strong balance sheet secured Atterbury’s early developments.”
From the outset, building and owning buildings was a key focus for Atterbury to ensure development profits and long-term capital gain.
“Our first development was the office of the Auditor-General in Brooklyn, Pretoria. As the portfolio expanded, new funding was hedged using already completed buildings as security,” explains Louis.
In 2002, Atterbury co-founded Attfund, an unlisted regional shopping centre fund of which it owned 43%. Attfund was sold to Hyprop in 2011.
Taking a confident approach
Challenging economic circumstances emerged for the SA property sector with the global economic crisis in 2008. Banks were withholding development funding. Despite this, Atterbury secured a R1.3 billion loan – the biggest for a private developer at the time – to develop Lynnwood Bridge.
Contrary to the defensive strategies many companies adopted at this time, Atterbury took a proactive, innovative approach and concluded the largest property transaction in SA to date. “In 2008, Atterbury also acquired 1,730,000sqm of commercial property development rights at Waterfall, which will provide a consistent pipeline of development profit for at least the next decade, with 1,400,000sqm of developable bulk available,” notes Louis.
Its focused, aggressive approach to property development, supported by innovation, creativity and a strong entrepreneurial spirit makes Atterbury SA’s leading property developer, even in challenging markets.
“The global economic climate, slow SA growth, increasing interest rates, declining consumer spending and challenges surrounding government policy motivated Atterbury to expand its focus to attractive regions on the African continent and Europe,” explains Louis.
Pioneering new markets
Atterbury has led the way for property development in other African countries. “We’re focused on retail opportunities in African countries outside South Africa,” reports Louis. “Several investors have partnered Atterbury as developer to build a portfolio of prized retail and commercial assets.”
In 2009, Atterbury acquired a 50% stake in the Bagatelle land, Mauritius, where it developed the first regional shopping centre in Mauritius, which opened September 2011.
