A broad-based black investor group, the Elephant Consortium, is to acquire a 10,1% stake in fixed line telephone operator Telkom.
It will acquire the stake from the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which will retain 5% of a 15,1% stake it bought in Telkom in November last year for R6,6-billion and had been warehousing for six months while it was negotiating a deal with the Elephant Consortium.
”The consortium will itself be committing an amount of R40-million of its own capital, with the remainder funded by Nedbank, Absa and the PIC,” said Elephant Consortium head Andile Ngcaba.
Brian Molefe, CEO of the PIC, said the state asset manager had made a R1,5-billion return in the six months that it had warehoused the 15,1% stake after purchasing it from the United States and Malaysian controlled Thintana consortium.
The Elephant Consortium’s 10,1% stake will be shared equally between the Lion Consortium led by Andile Ngcaba, the Buffalo Consortium led by women’s group Wiphold and the Broad Based Beneficiary Trust.
”This is good news for our clients and particularly the government employer fund,” Molefe said.
Ngcaba added that a portion of the annual dividends that would be retained by the consortium would be allocated to community development projects. – Sapa