Kagiso Trust Investments is graduating from little to super league in the media industry. Jacquie Golding-Duffy looks at its future media interests
Kagiso Trust Investments (KTI) has come out of the closet, admitting it is involved in talks with major Afrikaans press group Perskor — owner of the most notorious of the apartheid-era newspapers, The Citizen.
While media attention has focused on the bid by black empowerment companies for Times Media Limited, KTI has quietly been securing joint control of Perskor. This will give it ownership of The Citizen — originally started by the National Party government with secret funds — a number of highly-profitable magazines, a large printing works and a stake in M-Net.
The announcement by KTI, the investment arm of the Kagiso Trust, comes amid a host of other media plans it has been nurturing involving radio bids and a television licence application.
On the Perskor front, an insider who is privy to negotiations says talks with the stable are close to being finalised following two months of ongoing talks and two cautionary notices alerting Perskor shareholders to changes within the stable.
KTI has a guarantee of board representation as part of the deal, something which another major but passive shareholder, the other Afrikaans media giant Naspers, does not have. Naspers and Perskor, do, however, jointly own the biggest Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport.
Board representation for KTI means it will play a key role in the ”strategic direction” of the company an insider says, adding that it will have a ”joint control of the stable” and not be relegated to the back-benches.
KTI has previously said it is interested in expanding its printing capacity and publishing company with no specific interests in newspapers. However, the fact that the Citizen forms part of the stable is a plus for the consortium.
In a statement published earlier this week, it said Perskor was negotiating a number of transactions, one of which was the possible acquisition of KTI’s 40%-held Kagiso Publishers. The deal could see the trust becoming a substantial and joint controlling shareholder in Perskor Beleggings (Persbel), the parent company of Perskor.
Aside from Perskor talks, it emerged this week that KTI is also the leading member of the consortium that is the sole bidder for the SABC’s Radio Oranje, following the withdrawal by other bidders. The Independent Broadcasting Authority now has to consider KTI’s application for a licence and unless there are objections from outside parties or the IBA itself, KTI is guaranteed the radio station.
With a modest R11-million bid for Radio Oranje, it seems likely that KTI will be the first black owner of a commercial radio station in South Africa. The consortium that made the bid for Radio Oranje consists of KTI with a 25,5% shareholding, film producer Anant Singh’s Durban Videovision Entertainment with 25,5% and Publico with a 24 % shareholding.
This consortium, with the addition of musician Johnny Clegg, has also bid for East Coast radio. And with M&G Media, owners of the Mail & Guardian, it has submitted applications for new radio licences in Durban and Cape Town.
Kagiso Publishers also recently acquired Craft Press, a Johannesburg-based printing company.
KTI is planning to apply for a television licence when the IBA invites licence applications for free- to-air television next year.
The investment company is planning to link up with an international player when making the application, but as yet refuses to divulge information on who the likely partner will be.
KTI’s main objectives at the time it was launched by Kagiso Trust, the country’s largest non-governmental organisation, was to make the trust more self- sufficient and less dependent on grant aid. Profits from KTI are fed back into the Trust. The second objective was to take advantage of opportunities in the market following the socio-political changes in the country since the April 1994 elections.
Operating from an office in Braamfontein, KTI’s backbone consists of three people: executive chairman Eric Molobi who sits on, among others, Telkom’s board and the Independent Newspapers’ International Advisory board, managing director Johnson ”JJ” Njeke and executive director Fani Titi.
The Kagiso Trust board of trustees includes former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Reverend Frank Chikane, apparently an adviser to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki; Zanele Mbeki, trustee of the Women’s Development Bank; and anti-apartheid veteran Reverend Beyers Naude.