The Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) said it would look into share dealings made by the acting chairman of private education company Advtech following a takeover approach from rival Curro Holdings .
"We are looking at it now," Peter Redman, a senior technical advisor at the JSE's market regulation division said on Friday in response to a query from Reuters. He was referring to the purchases of shares in May by the family trust of former Advtech director Jeffrey Livingstone.
Livingstone was acting chairman of Advtech at the time but retired from that role and as a director of the firm at the end of June.
Advtech told Reuters that it had investigated the trades by Livingstone and that all of the company's internal policies and procedures had been adhered to and complied with.
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Livingstone could not be immediately reached for comment via the company.
Redman said it was still too early to say what the outcome of the regulator's checks could reveal.
Curro said in a filing to the stock exchange this week that it had submitted a "firm expression of interest" to Advtech's chairman and its chief executive on April 29, which contained an offer price of 13 rand per share.
The share trades by Livingstone's family trust were carried out on May 25 and 26 and executed at less than 10 rand per share, according to JSE data.
The total value of the trades was nearly R900, 000 at the time, the data showed.
On June 25, shares in Advtech rose nearly 16 percent to R12.75 by 1033 GMT after the company first publicly announcing it had received a buyout proposal from a third party. They pulled back to close up 4.5 percent at R11.52 that day.
On Friday, Advtech shares traded at R12.11 at 1200 GMT.
Advtech has twice rejected the buyout offer from Curro, making a hostile bid more likely.
- Reuters
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