The saga with embattled Tongaat Hulett continues with Magister Investments terminating the agreement to underwrite R2 billion of its proposed R5 billion rights offer. The capital raise was to be instrumental in curbing its escalating debt. The company will now establish a restructuring committee and has announced the appointment of non-executive director Piers Marsden as chief restructuring officer to intensify focus on the turnaround of Tongaat.
Prosus has disposed on the open market, 131,873,028 JD.com shares (c.4% stake) it received as an in specie distribution, realising proceeds of c.$3,67 billion. JD.com was considered not part of the group’s core strategic focus.
Adcorp has repurchased an aggregate 1,374,187 shares during the period June 13-24, 2022 for a total value of R8,52 million, funded out of the group’s cash resources. The shares, which represent 1.28% of the issued share capital of the company will be held as treasury shares.
Tiger Brands repurchased a 5,768,836 ordinary shares for a purchase consideration of R898,7 million, representing 3.04% of the total issued shares of the company. The shares were repurchased during the period February 21 to March 31, 2022.
Naspers and Prosus have announced the start of an open-ended share repurchase programme of Naspers and Prosus shares. The programme will run as long as elevated levels of the trading discount to the Group’s underlying net asset value persists. The repurchases will be funded by a reduction in the group’s Tencent stake – an about turn on comments made by Prosus management in April 2021 which stated that it would not dispose of any further Tencent shares for three years.
CA Sales listed on the JSE on June 27, closing the day at R7.54 per share giving the fast moving consumer goods company a market capitalisation of R3,48 billion.
A2X will, on July 4 2022, welcome Discovery to its bourse. Discovery’s secondary listing will bring the total number of instruments available for trade on A2X to 69 with an aggregate market capital of R4,5 trillion.
A number of companies listed on one of South Africa’s Stock Exchanges have initiated share buyback programmes and each week update shareholders. They are:
South32 this week repurchased 1,472,651 shares at an aggregate cost of A$6 million.
This week British American Tobacco repurchased 1,423,000 shares for a total of £49,8 million. The purchased shares will be held in treasury with the number of shares permitted to be repurchased set at 229,400,000.
Glencore this week repurchased 8,610,000 shares for a total consideration of £38,8 millionin terms of its existing buyback programme which is expected to end in August 2022.
This week three companies issued profit warnings. The companies were: Sable Exploration and Mining, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon and Visual International.
Four companies this week issued or withdrew cautionary notices. The companies were: Afristrat Investment, Premier Fishing and Brands, Finbond, Ascendis Health and Datatec.
DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication
