Wilderness to exit BSE via P1bn deal
Mbongeni Mguni | Tuesday March 19, 2019 17:14
Shareholders will soon be asked to vote on the P6.25 per share the firm African Wildlife Holdings Limited, is offering for their shares. If the offer is successful, Wilderness Holdings will exit the BSE and go private.
Facts contained in a statement released this afternoon indicates the offer will easily meet the threshold required for approval, as already Wilderness investors holding 61.9% of the issued shares have given guarantees that they will vote for the offer. African Wildlife Holdings Limited only needs to secure a minimum of 35.1% of the current shares for the offer to pass, a small task as the investment group currently holds 25.3% in Wilderness.
Wilderness executives said the offer represented a 45% premium on the average price the safari group’s shares traded on at the BSE and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange between February 4 and March 15 March. They added that the stock was not too active on both exchanges, while incurring high costs of continued listing.
Mmegi is informed that the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund, which by February 28, 2018, held 4.5% shares in Wilderness, commissioned an evaluation of its holdings in the safari group two weeks ago. It is also unclear what will happen to the 28 million shares the pension fund is fighting to recover within Wilderness, in the aftermath of the collapsed Capital Management Botswana partnership.
Wilderness shareholders are due to formally vote on the offer before May 31.