Exchange-Listed Companies
Supermarket Income REIT plc (SUPR) has entered into a strategic joint venture with funds managed by US alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital. SUPR has seeded to the joint venture eight high yielding, omnichannel UK supermarket assets from an existing portfolio at a 3% premium to book value as at 31 December 2024. The portfolio has a value of £403 million. The joint venture will be equally held so SPUR will receive a net cash consideration of c.£200 million in respect of the sale of the assets. It will also receive a management fee of 0.6% per annum of the gross asset value for the ongoing management of Blue Owl’s interest in the JV. The JV will seek to acquire additional supermarket assets with the view to growing the platform up to £1 billion over the coming years.
The Newco consortium comprising Entsha [DKMS Group] and Falcon Holdings [Zahid Group] which late last year sought to take Barloworld private by acquiring the remaining 78% stake in the industrial conglomerate, has secured the support of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for its standby offer. The initial offer of R120 per share (excluding the R3,10 dividend) at a significant premium was rejected by shareholders in February, triggering the standby offer. The PIC, which holds c.21.9% of Barloworld, has done an about turn and has undertaken to support the standby offer on condition the company implements a 13.5% B-BBEE transaction after delisting. Should the Barloworld remain listed, the PIC will be entitled to retain a stake in the company as required for the PIC to maintain its internal index weighting requirement. To date, undertakings by shareholders to accept the standby offer together with the Consortium’s and the Barloworld Foundation’s shareholding equate to 46.93%. The consortium needs to receive acceptances from 90% of affected shareholders to enable the squeeze-out of the remaining shareholders to accept the offer. If this is achieved, then Barloworld will be delisted.
Diversified technology group 4Sight has acquired X4 Solutions and XFour Technology as the company expands its digital enterprise ecosystem and strengthens its footprint in workforce technologies. The acquisitions, specialise in integrating and optimising HR and payroll systems in 20 countries across Africa with the ability to tailor enterprise-grade offerings to the unique dynamics of the African labour market. The purchase consideration payable will be split into two separate tranches with an initial payment of R21,2 million comprising equally of cash and share components. A second tranche (earn-out) of R21,2 million is subject to financial performance of the companies over the year to 28 February 2026. The acquisition is a category 2 deal so does not require shareholder approval.
Absa Bank has proposed a repurchase of all (4,944,839) the non-redeemable, non-cumulative, non-participating preference shares by way of two separate, but concurrent offers. An offer, by way of a scheme of arrangement for a cash consideration of R930 per preference share following which the shares will be delisted for the JSE, or failing which, a general standby offer for a portion of the preference shares for a cash consideration of R930 per standby offer share. The offers represent a premium of 13.4% to the closing price on 16 April and 14.9% to the VWAP of R809.10 being the share price during the 30 trading days up to 16 April 2025. The maximum value of the proposed transaction is R4,598,700,270. Absa has received irrevocable undertakings from shareholders holding 26.93% of the preference shares to vote in favour of the scheme.
Unlisted Companies
African fintech investor Crossfin has announced an investment in South African payments advisory and platform solutions company DigiSquad. The size of the investment which remains undisclosed will be used to scale activities and expand its sphere of influence to a broader cross-section of the African payments and fintech landscape. Founded in 2015, the company offers services such as financial consulting, product development and data analysis to clients across Africa and in the US. It recently launched DigiEngine, its flagship platform. For Crossfin, the DigiSquad cloud-based payments platform is of relevance across its portfolio.
Mergence Investment Managers, an institutional fund manager and pioneer in impact and infrastructure investing, has acquired a controlling stake in strategic digital infrastructure assets located within the residential precincts of Waterfall City in Gauteng. The acquisition was executed through the Mergence Infrastructure & Development Equity Fund II. The deal gives Mergence exclusive rights to provide fibre connectivity to c. 4,000 residential units with scalable capacity to expand to more than 9,500 units in the short to medium term. In addition, the acquisition includes a 250-kilometre fibre optic backbone extending from Waterfall City to the Botswana border at Kopfontein with significant spare duct capacity to enhance connectivity across economic nodes such as Rustenburg, Brits, Cullinan, Zeerust and Groot Marico. Financial details were undisclosed.
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