Azrapart, the co-owner of Fourways Mall, has been placed under business rescue by the Free State High Court.

Azrapart owns 50% of Fourways Mall alongside Accelerate Property Fund. The company has one director, Michael Georgiou, who is also a non-executive director and former CEO of Accelerate.

The High Court has ruled that the company should be placed into business rescue following an application from creditors Investec and RMB.

The court had already delivered a judgment in March 2025, noting that the total amount owed to the applicants was R2.3 billion, with Azrapart unable to pay it.

Although the court noted that there were strong indications that Azrapart was unable to pay its debts, there were also indications that it could be successfully rescued.

Azrapart?s primary defence was that it was finalising a transaction with the UK-based Redcore Hospitality, which would inject R2.6 billion into the company.

The funds would be enough to cover Azrapart?s liability, if realised. The prospect of the capital injection led to several delays in the court process.

In April 2025, the company told the court that the promised R2.6 billion was forthcoming. However, Investec and RMB hired a law firm in the UK to provide advice on Redcore.

The law firm?s affidavit showed that Redcore reported no turnover in 2023 and had no employees.

On the balance of probabilities, the court said that Redcore would be unlikely to provide a R2.6 billion injection to Azrapart. No bank confirmation letters were submitted to show the company had funds.

Investec and RMB said that they are severely prejudiced by the company remaining distressed, as the asset forming the subject of security, Fourways Mall, cannot be adequately managed and maintained.

After nine months and the lack of proof of funds from Redcore, the High Court placed Azrapart under business rescue as per the Companies Act of 2008.

The Azrapart business rescue comes at a relatively positive time for Fourways Mall, which has faced extreme pressure in recent years.

At 178,000 sqm, Fourways Mall is the largest mall in the country. Its space expanded following a massive revamp in 2019, increasing the gross lettable area from 61,634 sqm to 88,875 sqm.

The mall saw a significant tenant drop following several extreme shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the weak retail environment.

However, the mall is undergoing profound management shifts, as several empty stores start to fill up.

The mall has improved recently, letting 20,783 sqm of retail space and renewing leases for over 150 existing tenants over the last 12 months.

The mall has thus slashed its vacancy rate from 24% to 13%, according to Moneyweb. Although this is still relatively high, it is heading in the right direction.

Accelerate has also pumped R400 million into the mall amidst the increased vacancies and the devaluation of the mall.

Property experts Flanagan and Gerard and the Moolman Group took over as the mall managers, shifting the tenant mix to focus on an upwardly mobile shopper base.

This resulted in the introduction of several ?on-trend, convenient and purposeful stores and leisure activities.?

Several new stores came to the mall, including Huawei, Levisons, Mochachos, Pet Shop Science and ZuluZenith, while popular restaurant chain Spur has also re-joined the mall.

?The strong performance of our new tenants confirms that our leasing strategy is on the right track,? said Juan Palm, Fourways Mall Centre Manager. (BusinessTech)

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