Industrial Reporter
NEGOTIATING an empowerment deal is not expected to be an easy process for diversified services group Bidvest, which has no controlling shareholder.
Bidvest has made it clear it wants to increase the representation of black shareholding in the group, with its executive chairman Brian Joffe committing the company to this path earlier this year.
Of the issued shares in Bidvest, 60% is held by an array of institutional investors made up of pension funds, insurance companies, unit and investment trusts.
An analyst said that because such a large number of shareholders had sizeable holdings in the group, negotiating any change in ownership would be protracted. Possible negotiations between shareholders on bringing in a black partner could be complicated by the minority interest in Bidvest's operations.
Although there has been speculation that Bidvest was close to concluding a deal, the group has not issued a cautionary notice. Such a notice is necessary under JSE Securities Exchange SA (JSE) regulations if the group itself is in negotiations that could lead to a significant change in the share price.
On the other hand there would be no need to issue a notice if a deal is being discussed between the group's shareholders and there would be no real change to the value of Bidvest shares.
The group already has 24% of shares held by empowerment institutions if empowerment holding groups, state enterprise pension funds and empowerment asset managers are included.
Bidvest closed 2,11% higher at R42,99 on the JSE yesterday.
May 16 2003 07:10:59:000AM Larry Claasen Business Day 1st Edition
Friday
16 May 2003
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