Thursday, December 21, 2006

Private Equity Firms Hungry for South African Firms

Private equity firms have been snapping up some of South Africa’s most well-known companies recently. Financial giant, Alexander Forbes, looks to be bought by the Actis Consortium at a 16% premium to current market value. Grocery chain, Shoprite Holdings, will likely go private at a slight discount to its current price. And fashion retailer, Edcon, is rumored to be sold to private equity investors in a $3 billion deal.

So, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange may see some of its blue chips disappear next year, and South Africans are debating the pros and cons of the trend. Business Day ran a nice article on the implications of the private equity surge.

www.investinginafrica.net

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would Shop-Rite sell at a discount?

Unless the share price rose AFTER the intial bid...

Ryan Shen-Hoover said...

It sold at a discount because of a "speculative" run-up in price ahead of the offer. Needless to say, shareholders are none too happy about the deal.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

The KKR of "The Barbarians at the Gate fame" are taking over Edgars. There is quite a ripe company for a takeover in Uganda named Uganda Clays.

QUALITY STOCKS UNDER 5 DOLLARS said...

Private equity does more harm than good.

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