Earlier this week Sirius Real Estate announced it would undertake a capital raise of £150 million comprising and institutional placing conducted through an accelerated book building process and a placing to select qualifying investors in South Africa. Sirius has successfully placed 159,574,468 shares at an offer price of 94 pence which represents a discount of c.3.5% to the closing price of on 10 July 2024 and 11.8% of the existing capital of the company prior to the raise. Sirius will also raise up to £2,5 million in terms of a conditional retail offer of new shares via PrimaryBid on its online platform. Sirius will apply the net proceeds of the capital raise towards executing on its acquisition pipeline. The company has identified high-quality assets of more than €100 million in Germany and in the UK which fit the acquisition criteria and have attractive net initial yields.

Pick n Pay has secured shareholder approval to undertake a R4 billion fully underwritten, renounceable rights offer. The Company has concluded a standby underwriting agreement with Absa Bank, Rand Merchant Bank and Standard Bank to underwrite the offer amount in equal proportions. Pick n Pay will offer 252,206,809 renounceable rights to subscribe for new Pick n Pay ordinary shares in the ratio of 51.11 rights offer shares for every 100 Pick n Pay ordinary shares held. The subscription price of R15.86 per share represents a 32.48% discount and will constitute c.33.8% of the company’ share capital. Proceeds will be used to recapitalise the company as will the net proceeds of the intended Boxer IPO.

Vukile Property Fund’s black economic empowerment investor, Encha Properties Equity Investments, has launched a secondary placement of 52,881,466 ordinary shares in Vukile at R15.50 per share representing a 0.8% discount to the 30-day VWAP as at 10 July 2024. The decision by Encha to dispose of the shares follows discussions with Investec, their funders, to pay down the amount owing under the loan and security agreement it has with Investec.

Orion Minerals has announced a share purchase plan which will provide shareholders with the opportunity to subscribe for new shares in parcels starting from A$165 (R2,000) up to a maximum of A$30,000 (R365,000). Funds raised will be used to progress the development of the Prieska Copper Zinc Mine and on infrastructure development for early production in respect of the Okiep Copper Project.

A number of companies announced the repurchase of shares:

In line with its share buyback programme announced in March, British American Tobacco this week repurchased a further 915,000 shares at an average price of £24.73 per share for an aggregate £22,6 million.

In terms of its US$5 million general share repurchase programme announced in March 2024, Tharisa has repurchased 11,695 ordinary shares on the JSE at an average price of R20.13 per share and 329,041 ordinary shares on the LSE at an average price of 84.50 pence. The shares were repurchased during the period 1 – 5 July 2024.

Prosus and Naspers continued with their open-ended share repurchase programmes. During the period 1 – 5 July 2024, a further 4,091,604 Prosus shares were repurchased for an aggregate €135,17 million and a further 301,484 Naspers shares for a total consideration of R1,07 billion.

Six companies issued cautionary notices this week: Trematon Capital Investments, TeleMasters, PSV, MAS, Barloworld and Pick n Pay.

DealMakers is SA’s M&A publication.
www.dealmakerssouthafrica.com