Exchange-Listed Companies
Prosus Ventures has led a US$12,5 million Series A round in Intella, a leader in dialectal Arabic speech intelligence. 500 Global, Waed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures and HearstLab also participated in the round alongside Prosus. The investment will accelerate Intella’s mission to power a digital AI workforce across the Arabic-speaking world. The engine can transcribe speech from 25 different Arabic dialects with a 95.7% accuracy rate.
Invicta via its subsidiary Invicta Global is to acquire 100% of the Spaldings Group of Companies. Spaldings is a distributor of agricultural and ground care components in the UK, known for its extensive range of high-quality replacement parts and machinery. The purchase consideration payable is £11,86 million (R282,16 million) – the deal is a category 2 transaction and as such does not require shareholder approval.
Blu Label Unlimited, as it is now known, has released details of the intended restructuring of its operations with the end goal of listing Cell C. Via its wholly-owned subsidiary The Prepaid Company (TPC) which, pre-restructure, holds a 49.53% stake in Cell C, Blu Label will implement a series of agreements which will see the conversion of debt claims to equity valued at R3,68 billion; the transfer of Comms Equipment Company to Cell C in exchange for Cell C shares to the value of R2,15 billion; the transfer of airtime with a value of c.R7,4 billion and; the acquisition by TPC of Cell C shares held by SPV4 and SPV5 of 10.47% and 10% respectively in relation to debt obligations to TPC with a value of R563 million. The final step will see the remaining Cell C shareholders dispose of these shares to Cell C ListCo in return for the issuing of ListCo shares. TPC will, simultaneously to the Cell C ListCo listing, sell-down its shareholding to qualifying investors such that TPC will hold not less than 26% of Cell C Listco. Following the detailed announcement, Blu Label has received conditional approval from the Competition Tribunal to acquire an additional 4.04% shareholding in Cell C from Cedar Cellular Investments 1 (RF) for an undisclosed sum. This increases TPC’s shareholding in Cell C from 49.53% to 53.57%, establishing TPC as the controlling shareholder.
Santam has acquired a 51% stake in Avatar, a new UK-based start-up with a unique technology platform that can underwrite and price mid-sized corporate risks more efficiently than traditional methods. The price tag of £3 million was funded from the group’s available cash resources. Santam will not initially deploy any underwriting capacity to Avatar but depending on a successful track record being established, the startup may become a source of future new business for Santam.
Fortress Real Estate Investments has entered into an agreement to acquire an industrial property in Wroclaw, Poland for €49 million.
The finalising of the acquisition of Leopard Exploration and Mining and the Kabwe Zinc mine by Shuka Minerals, announced in July 2025, has been hindered due to the delay in the remittance of funds in the form of a loan from Gathoni Muchai Investments. Obtaining the required regulatory clearances in Kenya is the reason given for the delay. Alternative means are being explored to expedite payment, with the sellers remaining supportive of progressing the acquisition to completion.
In September 2024 Shoprite announced the disposal of its furniture businesses operating in SA, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Eswatini and Zambia to Pepkor for c.R3,2 billion. The proposed transaction was approved by all relevant authorities in the applicable non-South African territories, and a positive recommendation was made by the South African Competition Commission to the South African Competition Tribunal. However, subsequently Lewis was granted the rights to intervene in the matter. This has resulted in a delay of the proposed transaction with Lewis lodging an appeal with the Competition Appeal Court.
Barloworld’s standby offer has now received the Botswana Competition and Consumer Authority approval for the implementation of the offer with the only outstanding approvals required from COMESA and in Angola and Namibia. Should these not be received by 11 September, the longstop date will automatically be extended by three calendar months. The offer remains open for acceptance by Barloworld ordinary shareholders.
Accelerate Property Fund has been granted by the JSE, an extension for the issuing of the circular for the Portside Transaction announced in April 2025 – a category 1 transaction. The circular must be distributed by 15 October 2025.
DealMakers is SA’s quarterly M&A publication.
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