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Cape Town - IP Global, an international property investment company that has invested over $2 billion for off-shore investors across 30 markets worldwide, is now an official patron of the Professional Golfers Association of South Africa (PGA of SA).
Building on its already proud support of golfing communities and their development in other parts of the world, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), IP Global will be the PGA of SA’s exclusive property investment partner for a minimum of three years.
The company, which has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has decided to expand its global golf footprint to South Africa and Africa, a well-known greenhouse for international golf greats such as Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Harold Henning, and more recently David Frost, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen.
IP Global’s agreement with the PGA of SA, to the value of R100 000 per year, kicked in on November 1, 2015 and will continue until October 31, 2018, and possibly beyond. The company is now an official partner of the African arm of arguably the largest professional golfers association in the world. It will be involved in tournaments such as the National PGA Championships and National Apprentice Championships, as well as in PGA education workshops.
David Miles, Senior Regional Marketing Manager, Europe, Middle East & Africa at IP Global, says: “We all know golf is a brilliant test of character. Thinking strategically, keeping cool under pressure and playing with precision and integrity are as important in golf as it is in business and in life. It’s also no secret that the greens are where business relationships are cemented and business opportunities explored. That’s why IP Global believes it’s so important to invest in golf in Africa and its development. Whether it’s through supporting school sport development, widening the net of talent identification, or improving accessibility to golf through affordable memberships, we would like to see more share in the culture, value system and opportunities that golf represents.”
IP Global has been a strong supporter of the UAE golf scene for the last eight years. Its involvement commences with a patron sponsorship of the UAE PGA, followed by various event sponsorships at UAE golf clubs, and more recently the development of its own golf event calendar. “We’ve increased our expenditure year on year and have become a recognised name within this golfing community. With a successful, proven formula in place we now want to expand our investment into golf, and to replicate our support of the PGA and our own world-class event calendar outside of the UAE. The next natural step is South Africa,” says Miles.
In addition to its PGA involvement, IP Global will also host a number of 18-hole corporate pro-am golf days at clubs throughout the Western Cape next year.
To mark the start of its role as PGA of SA patron, IP Global hosted a four-ball pro-am shotgun-start golf day at the Jack Nicklaus signature golf course at Pearl Valley Golf Club outside Paarl in late November. The golf day was bolstered by the inclusion of no fewer than 18 pro players: Louis Destroo, Graham Webster, Gavin Woodroffe, Wayne Bradley, Blanche Lamprecht, Mike Michell, Ian Kennedy, Neil Whitehorn, James Wade, Gregg Upton, Jonathan Bartlett, William Guy, Andrew Mackie, Ben Fouchee, Pierre van Vuuren, Marlon Swarts, Dan Heyns and Regardt van Rooyen. The pros played alongside invited potential investors, media members and IP Global investment experts and advisers.
This followed the opening of IP Global’s new office in Century City the previous day. The office will initially focus on sub-Saharan markets that are already showing a healthy appetite for off-shore property investment, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe. In the next five years IP Global will target other African markets in which it has a client base, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana and Uganda.
At the same time this gives the company an opportunity to further share its off-shore property investment offering with Southern Africa, where investors’ demand for access to overseas property markets continues to flourish. This trend has enabled IP Global to grow its African operations over the last two years and will saw it open the doors of its new Africa headquarters in Cape Town on Wednesday, November 25, 2015.
