A group led by current CEO James Whitehouse has been selected to buy movie company Sasani’s remaining assets for around R130-million.
The deal still requires regulatory and shareholder approval but could be concluded shortly.
Sasani announced yesterday that the Whitehouse consortium was the preferred bidder for its assets. Although a fair-and-reasonable assessment is still due, the board said it unanimously approved of the consortium’s offer of R2.07 in cash for every Sasani share.
The major remaining asset the consortium has bid for is the Movie Camera Company (MCC), an equipment supplier to the movie industry.
The consortium already owns around 8,6% of Sasani’s shares, mostly through the holdings of management.
Sasani said the consortium is represented by James Whitehouse and includes Geoff Green, MD of MCC, and Leon Noussis, a financial manager with the Sasani group. The rest of the consortium is still under wraps.
“I don’t actually know who the consortium is,” said Sasani chairman Nic Frangos. “James [Whitehouse] put in an offer on behalf of a group that includes some management and he didn’t disclose the rest of the members [of the consortium]. But we are happy with the undertakings they gave us.”
Frangos said a major local bank is financially backing the group, but he would not disclose which one. He confirmed that he holds shares in a company run by the brother of Noussis but said he had no involvement in the bid and that there was no conflict of interest.
“I’m not funding anything and I’m a seller like every other shareholder,” he said.
In its statement to shareholders Sasani said that no non-executive director would participate directly or indirectly in the transaction.
Whitehouse was not available to answer questions on the composition of the consortium.
If the deal is consummated Sasani will be delisted from the JSE Securities Exchange. The timeline for that process has yet to be announced, but Sasani promised that further details would be forthcoming.
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