OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 10.00am.
SHAREHOLDERS in Nando’s, the fast food chain, voted overwhelmingly in favour of a controversial merger between Nando’s Group Holdings and its loss recording offshore operations, controlled by Nando’s chairperson Robbie Brozin.
Critics including some Nando’s shareholders said that the deal was designed to salvage Brozin’s interests and protect them from escalating foreign losses and debt.
Nando’s two biggest institutional shareholders Coronation Specialist Growth Fund and BoE Emerging Focus Fund did not vote. In the past the managers of the two funds had lobbied investors to oppose the merger saying that it would dilute earnings. The Brozin family’s MBI Investments owns two thirds of Nando’s foreign operations.
Nando’s will acquire the foreign operations by issuing 453.5m new shares at 45c each. Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) will buy 30m shares in the merged group.
Brian Sacks the managing director of Nando’s South Africa now said that he was looking forward to the “knitting and what he does best sell chicken”. He said that the merger was done on the basis of the predicted long-term strength of the Nando’s brand. Sacks also said that RMB financial input will not be used to pay off a R25m debt Brozin’s consortium owes the bank.