The South African Competition Tribunal has, with a condition, ruled in favour of Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) in a deal that will see the investment firm increasing its stake in Johnnic Holdings (JNC), it was announced on Wednesday.
HCI said in a statement that the Tribunal had approved a deal enabling Mercanto Investments to acquire the remainder of the issued shares in Johnnic not in the hands of the investment group and its subsidiaries.
Mercanto is HCI’s wholly-owned subsidiary through which the listed group has extended a mandatory offer to take the entire holding in Johnnic.
As a condition ahead of the implementation of the deal, the Tribunal has ruled that HCI should undertake a disposal of the Johnnic-held Gallagher Estate which competes with Sandton Convention Centre and is home to the Pan- African Parliament.
Johnnic reported at the release of its interim results that Gallagher Estate — its Midrand-based wholly-owned entity — had increased revenue by 60% over the prior comparative period.
The company’s headline earnings per share (HEPS), on a pro forma basis, surged 75% to 35 cents per share while revenue grew 36% to R72-million while profit was 57% higher at R11-million versus the previous seven million rand.
HCI has made an undertaking that it will effect the Gallagher disposal within the twelve-month period as required by the Tribunal.
The ruling will see HCI’s holding in Johnnic immediately rising to 46,5% given that Johnnic shareholders who had accepted HCI’s mandatory offer will now cease to hold their Johnnic shares in exchange for a cash consideration of R10,70 per share.
HCI, whose interim HEPS soared 71% to 125.06 cents, also owns a regional youth radio station Yfm, free-to-air e.tv and co-owns the two-year-old Tsogo Sun with Johnnic and SABMiller (SAB).
As at the end of the half-year, the investment group’s investor base included the Southern African Clothing and Textiles Workers’ Union with 42,1%, HCI chairman Marcel Golding whose holding stood at 8,4% while CEO Jonny Copelyn owned 13,9%.
The implementation of the transaction could also result in the delisting of the gaming and hotels group which this year unbundled its entire stake in Johnnic Communications (Johncom, JCM).
Johnnic and HCI were not immediately available for comment.
At the JSE’s closing bell, Johnnic had given up 6.15% or 75 cents to 11.50 rand after 4,420 shares changed hands while HCI ended unchanged at 35 rand per share after a mere 675 shares had traded in just two deals. – I-Net Bridge