The L&R Consortium, which has British, South African and Dubai elements, has been named by Transnet as the successful bidder for the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (V&A) in Cape Town.
The bid came in at R7,04-billion.
Among leading South African black business leaders involved in the project are Vincent Maphai and Hassan Adams.
The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront (V&A) is being sold by Transnet — the umbrella transport parastatal — and its pension funds, Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund, the Transnet Pension Fund and the Transnet Retirement Fund (TRF).
L&R Consortium, known in full as the London and Regional Consortium — through Lexshell 44 General Trading — has been selected in a transaction process that began in May, but which has been characterised by secrecy.
It is understood that Old Mutual was among a short-listed group.
The consortium, selected from nine short-listed bidders based on the evaluation criteria published in May 2006, is a South African company made up of a broad spread of local and international shareholders.
It is led by the United Kingdom-based London and Regional Group Holdings Limited. The other members include a 23,1% stake by black economic empowerment (BEE) shareholders, international property investors, Dubai-based investment house Istithmar PJSC, while 2% is held by a consortium to be set aside in a trust for the V&A Waterfront’s black workers.
Lexshell’s BEE shareholders include Tsa Rona Investments, Decorum, the Western Cape Women’s Investment Alliance, Kgontsi Investments and the Cape Empowerment Trust, as well as other community organisations.
Transnet Group CEO Maria Ramos — a former director general in the South African Treasury — has described the deal as balanced.
“The V&A-linked unit holders are satisfied that the L&R Consortium has successfully fulfilled the stated evaluation criteria with maximum value being realised for the linked unit holders’ stakeholders, 74% of whom are pension-fund members, while leveraging meaningful BEE participation and retaining jobs of all V&A employees.” — I-Net Bridge