/ 14 August 2008

Tiger Brands shareholders approve Adcock listing

Shareholders of Tiger Brands on Thursday approved at a general meeting, with the requisite majority of shareholders, several resolutions that will give rise to the separate listing and unbundling of Adcock Ingram Holdings.

Accordingly, each Tiger Brands shareholder will receive one Adcock Ingram share for every Tiger Brands share held. Adcock Ingram will be listed on the JSE on Monday August 25.

Tiger Brands will now be a focused fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company.

Peter Matlare, CEO of Tiger Brands, said the approval of the separate listing and unbundling of Adcock Ingram is a demonstration of the commitment to executing Tiger Brands’s strategy.

“Tiger Brands is now well positioned to deliver on its growth strategy as a FMCG company, with an increased focus on expanding our international footprint, especially on the balance of the continent as demonstrated by our recent investments in Kenya and Cameroon,” he said.

The Mail & Guardian reported recently that Tiger Brands got away lightly when fines imposed on it and its subsidiaries for participation in bread and pharmaceutical cartels only amounted to R152-million.

The consumables giant would have had to hand over more than a year’s worth of profit (R2,6-billion) to the Competition Tribunal if new amendments to the Competition Act, which are being proposed by the Competition Authorities, were in place at the time it was prosecuted.

Tiger was fined R98-million for its participation in the bread cartel, which equates to 6% of its 2006 bread businesses profits, and R53-million for its subsidiary Adcock Ingram Critical Care’s (AICC) participation in the pharmaceutical cartel, which equates to 8% of AICC’s 2006 profits.