M&A Roundup: Quilter grows assets and Tongaat Hulett's shares suspension lifted

CFO South Africa 31 January 2020

Also: The Sharks renew sponsorship deal with Cell C and Intu Properties sells Spanish shopping centre.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has agreed to lift the suspension of trade in Tongaat Hulett’s shares with effect from Monday, 3 February 2020 after a six-month ban.

The JSE has agreed to lift the suspension “to enable investors to absorb the financial information that is now available” as the troubled sugar producer looks to recover from one of the biggest corporate scandals in South Africa.

Super Rugby franchise the Sharks has renewed its major sponsorship deal with South African telecommunications company Cell C. The new deal is effective immediately and will run for the next three years. Cell C has served as the Shark’s main sponsor since January 2014.

Grit Real Estate has completed its acquisition of the Club Med Cap Skirring, a hotel in Kabrousse, Senegal.

The cost of the deal has risen almost 4 percent to €16.2 million (R259 million) due to pre-development expenses incurred by Club Med SAS, with Grit planning further redevelopment and renovation at the hotel.

Investec Property Fund plans on selling all its shares in two South African malls, with the aim of investing the proceeds in Europe and the UK.

This move will see Investec Property Fund decrease its exposure to the volatile South African commercial real estate market, which has been hit by low economic growth and consumer confidence and policy uncertainty.

London-based Quilter said on Wednesday that stock market gains helped it grow assets under management by 13 percent to £110.4 billion during its year to end-December.

The group’s share price rose by a third in 2019, with CEO Paul Feeney (pictured) saying it has had annual net client cash inflow of £300 million for the year, excluding Quilter Life Insurance, reflecting a turnaround during the company’s fourth quarter.

Intu Properties has raised R2.3 billion from the sale of a Spanish shopping centre as it divests from the country in its struggle to survive.

The group is restructuring its balance sheet to lower its crippling debt, which is more than 18-times its market capitalisation. Intu, and its joint venture partner Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, has sold the Asturias shopping centre in Spain to ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund II, with Intu’s share of the proceeds amounting to €145 million (R2.3 billion).

[cfocoza-cta slug=get-the-latest-m-a-news]