Curro Holdings on Monday said all suspensive conditions for the R7.2bn acquisition of the company by the Jannie Mouton Stigting (Foundation) have been met or waived and that the transaction is now unconditional.
The planned acquisition will be by way of a scheme of arrangement that will see Curro delisted from the JSE.
Mouton, the founder of PSG and Capitec, plans to develop private school company Curro for philanthropic, educational purposes.
The transaction and legal advisers — PSG Capital and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr — said Curro will proceed with the implementation of the transaction once the Takeover Regulation Panel issues the requisite compliance certificate, which is expected today.
“Following receipt of the compliance certificate, Curro will publish the finalisation announcement, containing the remaining salient dates and times for implementation of the proposed transaction,” they said.
Earlier this month Business Day reported that the Competition Commission approved Mouton’s proposed buyout and conversion of education group Curro into a public benefit organisation, with conditions that Mouton is still considering.
The commission said it believed the proposed transaction was “unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any market”, though it wanted a firm commitment that the deal will be transformative.
“The commission has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the proposed transaction subject to undertakings that will make a substantial positive contribution to education, including of historically disadvantaged persons,” it said.
In August, Mouton, founder of Capitec, PSG Group, and PSG Financial Services, offered R13 a share for Curro through his Jannie Mouton Stigting, valuing the deal at R7.2bn.
Curro shareholders overwhelmingly approved the deal, with 99.98% of votes in support of the takeover.
The mooted deal, touted as “game-changing” for South Africa’s education sector, has already received unconditional approval from competition authorities in Namibia and Botswana.
At the end of the 2025 financial year Curro had about 72,638 learners and its facilities can accommodate as many as 30,000 more learners.
In the circular detailing the finer details of the deal, Curro said the Mouton family has ambitions to grow the company’s footprint.
Mouton has, over the years, personally donated a portion of his accumulated wealth to his trust. The objectives of the trust are focused primarily on the provision of bursaries and grants for study to learners and students in South Africa, community development and outreach, and the alleviation of poverty in the country.
“The trust has identified Curro as the ideal vehicle through which to achieve these objectives, given that it is already a reputable business and has a strong and forward-thinking management team,” the circular reads.
“The Curro group currently has about 85% black learners. The trust’s vision is to position Curro as an everlasting independent education institution that uses its funds to build more schools, expand facilities and its education offering, and to provide bursaries for study to augment the government’s efforts to provide excellent education to the leaders of tomorrow.”
On Tuesday Curro confirmed that it would delist on January 13.
Note: Tuesday December 23 2025
This story has been updated with the Curro delisting date.
With Kabelo Khumalo
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