OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 4.00pm.
Life assurance giant Sanlam’s listing dominated trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange early on Monday, opening at 600 cents a share and closing one cents down at 599c.
Turnover in Sanlam shares was close to R200-million, representing half the JSE’s turnover early Monday, analysts said.
The life assurance company raised more than R4-billion in new capital ahead of Monday’s listing, which followed a vote by more than a million policyholders in October to demutualise the company.
The money raised effectively takes Sanlam’s market capitalisation to R15,7-billion, making it one of the largest companies trading on the JSE. Policyholders were offered a discounted 540 cents offer price for new shares. These, and retail investors, were offered nearly 30% of the 689- million shares, with institutional investors taking up the remaining 70%.
However, 15500 policyholders who owed unpaid taxes are expected to have their share-dealings frozen by a court order brought by the South African revenue service. Using an amendment to the Income Tax Act, the revenue service gave notice that it plans to seize the demutualisation shares of Sanlam policyholders who have failed to pay their taxes. According to Business Day, the revenue service claims unpaid tax bills in South Africa amounts to an estimated R15-billion.