South Africa's wealthy Moolman family just sold nine shopping malls for $124 million

A family business started in Polokwane in 1967 has just sold nine shopping centres for 2 billion rand, about $124 million at 16.17 rand to the dollar, and it barely dents what the family still owns.

The Moolman Group agreed on Aug. 24 to sell the portfolio, spread across Limpopo, the Free State, Gauteng and North West, to Dipula Properties, a listed real estate investment trust. It is the largest transaction Dipula has ever done.

The Moolmans are keeping the assets they built their name on. They still own about 1.2 million square metres of commercial property and administer roughly 2,700 commercial tenants, according to Jannie Moolman, the second-generation head of the business. That includes Mall of the North in Polokwane, a regional centre of more than 77,000 square metres held jointly with the listed fund Resilient, and Rustenburg Mall, which the group completed at more than 30,000 square metres.

They are also selling only half of the biggest thing in the deal. Lephalale Mall in Limpopo covers 38,000 square metres and is valued at 1.03 billion rand, about $63.7 million. Dipula is buying 50% of it for 516 million rand, roughly $31.9 million, which accounts for a quarter of the entire transaction value. Moolman and one partner keep the other half.

The rest of the portfolio is Checkers Centre Polokwane, City Centre Polokwane and Great North Plaza in Musina, all in Limpopo; Bloemfontein Makro and half of Sasolburg Mall in the Free State; Kaalfontein Corner in Tembisa and Rand Steam Shopping Centre in Richmond in Gauteng; and Game Centre Vryburg in North West. Together they carry about 90,000 square metres of income-producing retail space, let to tenants including Checkers, Shoprite, Game, Cashbuild and Makro.

Pieter Lombaard, the group's chief executive, was direct about why they sold. Growth is not only about holding assets indefinitely, he said, and it also requires knowing when to realise value, recycle capital and create capacity for future developments.

The pipeline that money is going into is substantial. Moolman has Kings Walk Mall, Green Gate Shopping Centre, Canal Plaza and the Faerie Glen Shopping Centre redevelopment under construction. Planned work includes De Poort Lifestyle Centre and Diemersfontein Markt, both in the Western Cape, alongside a list of extensions and redevelopments.

The family behind it is now three generations deep. Jannie Moolman matriculated at Pietersburg High School in 1969, took a B.Com in accountancy at the University of Pretoria, and joined his father in the business in 1973. He later served as mayor of Polokwane and holds both fixed-wing and helicopter licences. Friederich Moolman, born in Welkom in 1955, joined as a partner in 1975 and holds a gliding licence and an instrument rating.

JZ Moolman represents the third generation. He matriculated in 2001, took a B.Com in financial management and a BSc in construction management at Pretoria, then a master's in construction project management at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He worked at Beckers Construction and at Resilient Property Income Fund before joining Moolman as development manager in 2012.

Lombaard, who runs the group day to day, is not a family member. He was born and raised in Pretoria, took a B.Com in marketing and honours in financial management at Pretoria, and joined on returning to South Africa in 2005.

What the group's own materials disclose is more interesting than the mall sale. Moolman runs a family office serving more than 20 family members, set up to review and grow the wider family's interests, with a specific focus on investments outside property. Those non-property holdings have grown to more than 40% of the family's net asset value.

A property dynasty has quietly moved almost half its wealth out of property.

Moolman has never been a solo operator. It co-owns Mall of the North with Resilient and the developer Flanagan & Gerard, holds a stake in a Midrand office park alongside the listed fund Attacq, and describes a long list of partnerships with listed trusts, smaller families and landowners. The Dipula deal continues that pattern, since the two companies have a long-standing relationship and Moolman is retaining half of Lephalale rather than exiting it.

Dipula funded the purchase with a 1.1 billion rand private placement, about $68 million, alongside existing debt. The new shares list on the Johannesburg exchange on Sept. 1. Dipula chief executive Izak Petersen said the acquisition is accretive from day one and buys at a blended yield of 9.3%, below the company's weighted average cost of capital. The transaction ends a cautionary that had sat on Dipula's shares since May 22.

Neither side has disclosed what the Moolman Group as a whole is worth. It is private, publishes no accounts, and reports its portfolio only in square metres and tenant counts.