simon marais on vpg & reits

from todays Australian

Orbis, the largest shareholder in Valad Property Group, owns almost three times as many units as Challenger Financial, which has a 4.14 per cent stake.

Mr Marais said the worst was over for Valad, which recently undertook a $50m capital raising to pay off British investor Kevin McCabe.

Mr McCabe was owed the equivalent of $56.5m and had sought to convert the outstanding debt into equity at 10c a share. "But we think a better deal for unitholders was a capital raising. We supported it," Mr Marais said.

"There are two parts of Valad's business. One is in Australia and Asia, and this part of the business is not highly geared at all. It has gearing on its European business."

Whatever happened, that business was "worth something", he said.

Most importantly, Valad's Australian business had not given a guarantee for the debt of the European business.

Mr Marais said MDT and Valad were companies whose securities had at one time traded as high as $2 a unit.

"I don't expect them to return to that level, but they could move up to 50c or 60c," he said.

He said he had bought into his current portfolio of companies when share prices were low a few months ago.

At the time, Valad was trading at 2.4c a unit, Australian Education Trust at 27.5c and APN European Trust at 3.9c.

for more info

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26272773-25658,00.html