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Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
Old Mutual Zimbabwe says voids within its property portfolio in the first quarter of 2015 were at 19 percent reflective of a difficult operating environment within the sector.

Old Mutual Zimbabwe chief executive Mr Jonas Mushosho last Friday said the current operating environment coupled with a tight liquidity crunch had become a challenge to tenants and this had led to the general low uptake of space in the property industry.

“The voids in our property portfolio reflect the difficult nature of our operating environment and our view is we are in the proper direction since our focus is glued on long-term decisions rather than short-term.

“We know that business is going through difficult times therefore we engage our tenants in finding ways that are beneficial to both ourselves and to them in the long-term,” said Mr Mushosho.

With regards to the performance of the Old Mutual business, Mr Mushosho said the first quarter of 2015 had been satisfactory.

“We have two flagship businesses and both of them posted very good results. We were able to deliver on our first quarter results.

“However, it’s very early in the year to be able to make predictions about what might happen particularly in a very difficult environment like this,” he said.