Oceana has 25% up for grabs after PIC sale flops
July 23, 2003
By Edward West
Cape Town - An effective 25 percent shareholding in Oceana, the country's largest fishing group, may be up for grabs after Real Africa Holdings failed to sell its stake to the Public Investment Commissioners (PIC) at the 11th hour.
Danie Vlok, a spokesperson for Real Africa Holdings, said it had been a "real disappointment" when the R296 million deal with the PIC fell through after the PIC failed to sign an application to the Competition Commission.
Competition Commission approval was a condition of the deal. There was very little chance the commission could have found anything wrong with the deal, said Vlok.
Real Africa has been unbundling and unlocking value for shareholders, and part of the process would have been to sell the 50 percent stake in Ocfish Holding Company. Real Africa and Tiger Brands jointly control Ocfish.
The Ocfish shareholding gives Real Africa an effective 25 percent shareholding in Oceana.
"Oceana remains one of our quality assets
. If someone wanted to make an approach they should approach us," said Vlok.
He said essentially what was required was for another empowerment group to take up the shareholding. Oceana needs a strong empowerment shareholding because it receives large fishing quotas from the government.
Andrew Marshall, the chief executive of Oceana, said that if Real Africa Holdings' shareholding was sold, it would be to an empowerment grouping.
He said there were divergent views on whether the PIC shareholding represented an empowerment stake or not. The failure of the PIC deal had not affected Oceana's share price, he said.
In the six months to March 30, the Oceana Group lifted headline earnings 15 percent to R91.9 million, slightly off target but creditable given the effect of the strong rand on export sales and lower trading volumes of pelagic fish.
The 2002 financial year was Oceana's 10th year of consecutive real earnings growth.
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