Pharmacy group Dis-Chem has sold a 10% stake to a group of black investors that includes Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), an investment outfit housing the assets of a mining community in the North West.
Dis-Chem announced that its founding Saltzman family, through their shareholding vehicle, Ivlyn Local Investment Holdings, has agreed in principle to sell 86,468,741 Dis-Chem ordinary shares at R26.05 each, a nearly 18% discount to the 30-day volume weighted average price at the close on Friday.
The price, which values the stake at R2.3bn, is subject to a lock-in period of the BEE consortium for three years beginning on Monday August 23.
The deal reduces Ivan Saltzman’s shareholding to 31.4%, worth about R8.3bn, as he prepares to step down as CEO of the company he co-founded with his wife, Lynette, in 1978 as a single pharmacy in Johannesburg.
The group, which has more than 170 stores in SA, said in a trading statement for the 22 weeks from March 1 to August 6 that revenue growth, including its wholesale pharmacy arm, reached R13bn, a strong increase of 16.3% compared with the corresponding period in 2020.
It said via the JSE’s stock exchange news service (Sens) on Monday that the consortium includes RBH, which manages about R30bn in assets on behalf of the Bafokeng community, owner of vast swathes of land on one of the world’s biggest platinum deposits.
Other investors are the Black Panther Consortium, which includes the GloCap Empowerment Private Equity Fund (GloCap), Zungu Pharmaceuticals, which is part of entrepreneur Sandile Zungu’s Zungu Investments and Temo Capital, a part of Modidima Family Office.
GloCap Empwerment Fund 6 will be the investor in the BEE transaction through the Black Panther Consortium. GloCap is the private equity manager.
Dis-Chem said Larry Nestadt, a co-founder and former executive director of Investec Bank, and Joe Mthimunye, Cell C’s chair, are investors in the GloCap fund, as is Saltzman.
After the conclusion of the BEE transaction, RBH will own 6.63% of Dis-Chem, the Black Panther Consortium will own 3.42%, Glocap 1.34%, Zico 1.33% and Temo 0.75%.
The BEE transaction has been approved by all the consortium members and the required financing agreements have been entered into. Accordingly, the BEE transaction was unconditional, said Dis-Chem.
The flow of funds and the transfer of Dis-Chem ordinary shares to the BEE consortium members will take place on Tuesday.
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