Inside the mega R2bn property deal

• Moolman Group has agreed to sell nine retail assets to Dipula Properties in a landmark R2 billion portfolio transaction.
• The deal adds nearly 90,000m² to Dipula while allowing Moolman to recycle capital into its next generation of developments.
• Dipula’s retail exposure will approach 80% of income, backed by a R1.1 billion equity raise to help fund the acquisition.

From a family business to a national property powerhouse

‍What began as a small family property business in Polokwane in 1967 has developed into one of South Africa’s substantial privately owned property enterprises and its latest R2 billion transaction provides a revealing window into how wealth is built, realised and recycled through commercial property.

Moolman Group and its co-investors have agreed to sell a portfolio of nine shopping centres across Limpopo, Gauteng, the Free State and North West to JSE-listed Dipula Properties.

For Dipula, it is the largest transaction in the REIT’s history. For Moolman, however, the more interesting story may be what happens next.

The disposal does not represent an exit from property. It represents capital recycling by a group that has spent almost six decades developing, acquiring, partnering on and managing commercial real estate and which continues to have a substantial development pipeline.

Moolman Group traces its beginnings to 1967, when Dr Jan Moolman established the business in what was then Pietersburg. Its first commercial property was a stand on the corner of Market and Grobler streets, initially developed into a parking lot.

Jannie Moolman joined the family business in 1973 and Friederich Moolman followed in 1975. The company subsequently expanded from construction into concrete products and steel before building an increasingly substantial property operation.

By the 1990s it was developing offices, Game centres and distribution facilities. The following decade brought further geographic expansion, and in 2011 its investment in larger regional shopping centres moved the portfolio into another league.

Among those projects was Mall of the North in Polokwane, which today remains one of the landmark retail assets associated with the group.

Moolman’s current portfolio extends far beyond its Limpopo origins. The group reports 94 portfolio properties representing approximately 1.65 million m² of total GLA, alongside a substantial pipeline of developments and redevelopments.

Its portfolio includes major centres such as Mall of the North, Middelburg Mall, Rustenburg Mall, Mall at Newmarket, Meadowdale Mall, Kuruman Mall and other retail, office and industrial properties.

The scale matters because it puts the R2 billion Dipula transaction into perspective: Moolman is selling significant assets, but it is not selling the business.

The R2 billion deal

‍On 24 August 2026, Dipula Properties announced that it had agreed to acquire nine shopping centres from Moolman Group and its co-investors for R2 billion.

The portfolio contributes almost 90,000m² of income-producing retail space and is occupied by national tenants including Checkers, Shoprite, Game, Cashbuild and Makro. The assets are spread across four provinces:

Limpopo

• 50% of Lephalale Mall
• Checkers Centre Polokwane
• City Centre Polokwane
• Great North Plaza, Musina

Free State

• Bloemfontein Makro
• 50% of Sasolburg Mall, formerly Sasolburg Junxion

Gauteng

• Kaalfontein Corner, Tembisa
• Rand Steam Shopping Centre, Richmond

North West

• Game Centre Vryburg

Lephalale Mall is the standout asset. The centre comprises nearly 38,000m² and has a total valuation of approximately R1.032 billion. Dipula is acquiring a 50% interest representing around 19,000m² for R516 million, roughly a quarter of the entire R2 billion transaction.

Moolman Group and another partner will retain the remaining 50%. That continuing ownership is important. It reinforces the fact that the transaction is not simply a disposal of assets but another chapter in a longstanding relationship between the two property groups.

Dipula CEO Izak Petersen says the companies have previously undertaken joint ventures, acquisitions and disposals together.

Moolman is selling and building again

‍For property investors, one of the most important lessons from the transaction is that successful property businesses do not necessarily hold every asset forever.

Moolman Group CEO Pieter Lombaard has described the transaction as part of a strategy of realising value and recycling capital to create capacity for future developments. That philosophy is visible in Moolman’s current pipeline.

Projects under construction include Kings Walk, Green Gate Shopping Centre and Canal Plaza, while the group is also undertaking significant upgrades and extensions. Its future pipeline includes developments such as De Poort Lifestyle Centre and the planned 27,000m² Diemersfontein Markt in the Western Cape.

The group is therefore effectively moving capital from mature investments into the next development cycle.

For investors, that is a useful distinction: a disposal is not necessarily a retreat. At the right price and point in the investment cycle, selling can release capital, reduce concentration and finance the next generation of assets.

Dipula gets bigger, but also more retail focused 

‍On the other side of the transaction is a REIT undergoing its own strategic evolution. Dipula was founded in 2005 and listed on the JSE in 2011 following the merger of Dipula Property Fund and Mergence Africa Property Fund. Its portfolio has since grown substantially.

Dipula currently reports a property portfolio valued at approximately R11.5 billion, comprising 155 properties and almost 894,000m² of GLA across eight South African provinces.

The group remains diversified across retail, industrial, office and residential property, but its direction is increasingly clear: retail is becoming the dominant earnings engine.

The Moolman acquisition follows a series of purchases over the past 12 months, including Protea Gardens Mall, Gezina Walk, Bayer Klerksdorp, Airborne Business Park and the R145.4 million acquisition of Birch Acres Square in Tembisa.

Including the Moolman portfolio, Dipula says its acquisitions over the period amount to 14 assets worth approximately R3 billion.

What Dipula looks like after the deal

‍The strategic impact is significant. Once the latest transactions are implemented, Dipula expects retail exposure to increase to close to 80% of income, while office exposure falls to around 10%.

That effectively pushes the REIT further towards the convenience, township and rural retail markets where it sees resilient demand and opportunities for active asset management.

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Petersen describes the strategy as disciplined rather than scale-driven. “This is not growth for the sake of scale. It is disciplined, selective growth that strengthens the quality and diversification of our portfolio and is accretive from day one.”

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Dipula is acquiring the Moolman portfolio at a blended yield of 9.3% and says the transaction will be earnings-accretive from implementation. Funding is another important part of the investment story.

Alongside the acquisition announcement, Dipula completed a private placement that secured approximately R1.1 billion of new equity. The capital, together with existing debt facilities, will fund the transaction.

Despite the scale of the purchase, Dipula expects its loan-to-value ratio to remain between 35% and 40%, within its target range. The R1.1 billion equity raise is also significant in its own right. It demonstrates institutional investor appetite to fund the REIT’s next stage of expansion rather than forcing the company to rely excessively on debt.

Nine assets, two different growth strategies

‍The transaction therefore brings together two very different but complementary property strategies.

For Moolman Group, the objective is capital recycling: monetising selected mature assets while retaining a substantial property base and creating capacity to fund new developments, extensions and redevelopments.

For Dipula, it is acquisitive growth: deploying new equity and existing balance-sheet capacity into income-producing assets that immediately increase its retail exposure and earnings base.

And there is history between the two. Moolman disclosed as far back as 2016 that it had entered into a joint venture with Dipula involving a portfolio valued at R809 million as part of a strategy to diversify its asset base and release capital for further investment. A decade later, the relationship has produced a transaction more than twice that size.

From one property to billions in capital recycling‍

The bigger lesson from the Moolman story is not simply that a wealthy property family has sold nine shopping centres for R2 billion.It is how the business reached the point where it could.

From a single commercial site in Polokwane in 1967 came construction operations, retail centres, offices, industrial properties, regional malls, partnerships with other major property investors and eventually a national portfolio measured in millions of square metres.

Almost 60 years later, Moolman can sell R2 billion of property and still remain a significant developer and property owner with another generation of projects under way.

Dipula, meanwhile, gets almost 90,000m² of established retail assets and moves decisively closer to becoming a predominantly retail-income REIT. That makes this more than another large property transaction.

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