Niki completed his Lettres Superieures in 1975, and completed his Political Sciences qualification in Paris in 1976, a BA in Public Administration in 1977 and a BA in Economics in 1979, all in France. He completed his MBA in 1989. He is the past Chairman of the Association of Listed Property Companies on the JSE limited, and contributed to the JSE’s panel for Listings Requirements relating to property.
From 1983 to 1987 he worked for Old Mutual Investments Limited, specialising in property investments, whereafter he was general manager of real estate at Investec Bank and BOE Properties. Subsequently has been involved in the listing and or the asset and property management of several listed companies.
Niki was involved in the listing the management and the re-structuring of many listed property vehicles including Growthpoint, Metpol Atlas, NK Properties Ltd and Plc (disposed to the JCI CAM Groups, Bontala and Barlow Rand Properties Ltd. He created several property management companies such as Abreal with the Abland Group and VLC Propertes.
In the 1990’s he consulted for Pangbourne, Hyprop and Barlow Rand Properties Ltd.
Niki gained vast experience in the property industry, working in the property and investment divisions of Old Mutual Investments and headed the listed property portfolios of Investec Bank Limited and BOE Limited for a number of years. Niki was involved in a number of property listings before founding Bonatla, with an initial portfolio of R250 million Niki was the CEO of Bonatla and was instrumental in the company’s listing on the JSE in 1997. The portfolio of the group grew rapidly over three years to around R700 million. During this time he assisted this growth by accepting put options from vendors in his personal capacity.
He became a non-executive director of Bonatla in 1999 and in 2001 and the property management was outsourced to professional property managers in order to aggressively grow the portfolio. Performance was not up to expectations, the management contract was later cancelled and Bonatla is pursing a legal claim in relation thereto. Niki resigned from the board in 2004.
Following the sale of the property portfolio, and the restructuring of the company’s board of directors, CDA Property Consultants (“CDA”) was appointed to rebuild Bonatla and CDA engaged Niki’s services as a consultant. In view of his vast property experience, the board invited Niki to rejoin Bonatla as an executive director with effect from 4 July 2008. With effect from 29 August 2008 and more recently as Chief Executive Officer.
