Property services group JHI Real Estate and black economic empowerment (BEE) investors Mpande Holdings and Phatsima Industrial have signed a BEE deal that focuses strongly on participatory shareholdings in the booming property sector, the parties said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
Mpande and Phatsima have each taken a 17,5% stake in JHI for a total stake of 35%. The intention is that Mpande, Phatsima and JHI will identify additional empowerment shareholders, which will result in an empowerment shareholding in excess of 40%, inclusive of JHI’s empowerment executives.
“JHI was against the idea of passive shareholders; we wanted investors with a genuine business interest in property,” JHI executive chairperson Les Weil said.
He added that after doing careful research into potential investors, JHI decided to sound out Phatsima and Mpande individually before initiating joint discussions.
The structure of the deal is crafted to ensure maximum, broad-based BEE equity.
“Mpande focuses on a few industry sectors in which its directors have deep experience and knowledge — and property is one of those focus areas,” Mpande chairperson Humphrey Khoza noted.
Phatsima is an investment company with broad-based BEE. Its shareholders include the African Equity Corporation and Morongwa, a community women’s group. Phatsima’s chairperson is entrepreneur Herman Mashaba, who last week won the coveted Black Management Forum’s Presidential Award for business excellence.
“We have a strong operational interest in property services. Joining up with an established name like JHI made a great deal more sense than trying to start a new brand,” Mashaba said.
Khoza, Mashaba and Mpande CEO Joe Khoza will join the JHI board. Looking ahead, the new BEE partners and JHI will identify specific areas of operational interest for the new shareholders and define direct involvement to complement the executive function. — I-Net Bridge