Mashold eyes 5pct growth in health sector portfolio

MASHONALAND Holdings (Mashold) says its health sector portfolio will increase from one percent to five percent after the completion of the Milton Park Day Hospital project in the next two months.
This comes after the property concern secured an agreement to develop and lease a hospital at one of its properties in Milton Park Harare.
“When you look at our current portfolio, we only have one percent in the health sector, which is the West End Hospital, and we want to grow our offering from one percent to five percent,” Mashold’s chief executive, Gibson Mapfidza, told The Financial Gazette in a recent interview.
“We signed an agreement to develop a lease with a leading medical services operator in Zimbabwe and we are building a day hospital in Milton Park with a capacity of around 50 beds.”

He said the hospital will be open by the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year.
“We are at 60 percent completion on that project; the target is to complete it by August 31, allow the tenants to do the fit-outs for two months, and then they start operating; the target is October,” he said.
“So, when we do that, it brings us closer to the five percent that we want to achieve in the health sector in terms of our total portfolio composition.”
Mapfidza recently said the group has been gradually growing the US dollar topline.
“The idea, I think, in the market is to try and solidify your position and US dollar revenue does that very well. When you also look at our business, we are trying to diversify and do projects. Contractors are charging in US dollars for building materials, and when you do that, you reduce your cost,” he said.
“So, when you look at 2022, when we started the year, our US dollar component was around 25 percent of total revenue; thankfully, we have managed to grow that number. We are sitting at 58 percent of our revenue in US dollars and the other 42 percent is still in ZWL.”
He said the thrust going forward is to grow the US dollar component by selling fully serviced stands.
“Those sales are happening 100 percent in US dollars. The same applies with the housing we are building in Westgate, where the sales are also in US dollars, but on the rental front, yes, we are also trying and have gone above the 50 percent mark,” he said.
Mashold has been making regular rental adjustments to keep pace with market developments.
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