In yet another twist to the bidding war for New Africa Investments Limited (Nail), the Tiso Consortium — comprising Tiso, Safika, Capricorn, Investec and Mineworkers Investment Company — said on Wednesday that it has acquired more Nail and Nail N shares.
Tiso acquired a further 30,453-million Nail N ordinary shares and a further 154 800 Nail ordinary shares at a price of R10,50 per Nail share.
Including acceptances of the offer, the members of the Tiso Consortium have acquired in aggregate 81,9% of the Nail N ordinary shares and 31,8% of the Nail ordinary shares in issue, the consortium said.
Last week Tiso, which is rivaling the Kagiso Consortium — comprising Kagiso Media, Johnnic Communications, Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers — in its bid for Nail, announced it had acquired 43,4-million of Nail’s N shares and one million Nail ordinary shares.
The Tiso offer was subject to it obtaining not less than 50% of the Nail N ordinary shares.
The consortium also claimed to have written support from a Nail shareholder representing a further 7,6% of the Nail N ordinary shares undertaking to accept the offer if there was no higher bid.
Also last week, Nail’s majority stakeholder, Phaphama, which holds 52,5% of the media group, planned to support the Tiso Consortium against a rival bid from the Kagiso consortium.
The Tiso consortium is offering R10,50 per share for Nail while the Kagiso consortium is offering R10,66 for selected media assets.
Nail’s board has recommended shareholders accept the Kagiso offer.
However, the Tiso consortium has inferred its offer has less strings attached, which has obviously appealed to Phaphama — added to which, of course, is the fact that Safika, one of the members of the consortium, also just happens to have a 34,9% stake in Phaphama.
The Kagiso consortium has applied to the Competition Tribunal to hear an urgent application to interdict and restrain Tiso from proceeding with the implementation of “special arrangements” and agreements between Tiso and Phaphama Holdings.
That hearing, which was originally scheduled for midday on Wednesday, has been postponed until 11am on Thursday, at the request of the Tiso, to allow it to prepare its case.
The Kagiso Consortium is of the view that the agreements between Phaphama and the Tiso Consortium amount to a merger transaction that has not been notified in accordance with the Competition Act.
The Kagiso Consortium also alleges that if such arrangements and agreements were to be implemented, it would be precluded from participating equitably in the bid process for Nail. — I-Net Bridge