South African tycoon Michael Georgiou's old firm sells Johannesburg mall for $38 million

Accelerate Property Fund Ltd., the Johannesburg real estate company built by property developer Michael Georgiou, is handing over Cedar Square Shopping Centre in Fourways, ending 13 years of ownership of one of its biggest malls.

Accelerate agreed in September to sell the centre to Aristonas, a private group whose ultimate beneficiary is the Big Apple Trust, for R630 million ($38 million). Cedar Square has about 44,249 square meters of lettable space and is anchored by a Pick n Pay and a Woolworths Food store. It also has a padel court.

The mall was sold as a going concern, with its rental income and its undeveloped bulk. Accelerate kept the right to develop about 40,447 square meters on the site through a notarial deed of servitude registered in its favor, and Aristonas can buy those rights later by written notice. The bulk is valued at about R169 million.

The deal needed approval from Accelerate shareholders and the competition authorities. The company said the sale "forms part of its ongoing strategic repositioning and restructuring programme" and that it will use the money to cut debt.

Selling down to pay debt

Accelerate has been selling properties for more than two years to repair its balance sheet. In its 2025-26 financial year, it cut gross debt by about R777.3 million to R3 billion, mainly through disposals. It sold four properties and a vacant stand for R788.5 million during the year, and five more properties and stands transferred after year-end, bringing in net proceeds of R278.2 million.

The value of its portfolio, including assets held for sale, fell to R6.6 billion from R7.75 billion over the year, mainly because of the sales and fair-value cuts.

Once Cedar Square goes, Fourways Mall will be Accelerate's last major shopping center. The mall, one of South Africa's largest, is valued at about R8 billion, and Accelerate's share of it is valued at about R4 billion.

Georgiou's Fourways empire

Georgiou put together a large portfolio of shopping centers and office buildings in and around Fourways, in Johannesburg's affluent northern suburbs, through his private companies. Cedar Square was among the properties he owned before he set up Accelerate in early 2013 and listed it on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

He then spent years redeveloping Fourways Mall into a super-regional center of about 178,000 square meters, a project that left the company carrying heavy debt. Georgiou has since exited the company, which is now selling off much of the portfolio he assembled.

Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.