Botswana real estate mogul Gulaam Abdoola loses $5 million in nearly 10 months as Turnstar shares decline by double digits

Botswana real estate tycoon Gulaam Abdoola has lost BWP56.1 million ($4.99 million) from his stake in Turnstar Holdings since the start of the year.

Turnstar Holdings is a property loan stock company headquartered in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The company holds eight properties in Botswana, four in Tanzania and one in Dubai.

Its asset portfolio includes multi-residential estates, office buildings and premium retail shopping centers like Game City Shopping Mall in Gaborone, Nzano Shopping Center in Francistown and Mlimani City in Tanzania.

Abdoola, a founding member and the managing director of the Botswana-based real estate company from its inception, holds a beneficial interest worth millions of dollars.

The multimillion-dollar loss in his stake since the start of the year can be attributed to investors and analysts worrying over the fundamental strength of the real estate company as its profits continue to decline year-on-year.

At the end of its 2021 financial year ending on Jan. 31, Turnstar posted a profit of BWP81.31 million ($7.22 million). This is 30-percent lower than the profit of BWP116.24 million ($10.33 million) that it posted for the corresponding period of 2020 and 33-percent lower than the profit of BWP121.34 million ($10.78 million) that it recorded two years ago.

Since the beginning of the year, shares in the company have declined from a price of BWP2.50 ($0.2221) per share on Jan. 4 to BWP1.80 ($0.15994) at the time of writing.

Abdoola’s stake in the company has declined from a market price of BWP200.37 million ($17.8 million) at the start of the year to BWP144.27 million ($12.8 million) at the time of writing.

As a result of the depreciation in the market value of his stake, the multimillionaire has lost BWP56.1 million ($4.99 million) since the start of the year.