Kagiso Tiso's Servest deal done, dusted
The "nice people" of Kagiso Tiso Holdings, as described by Servest co-founder and chairman Kenton Fine, have put up R1-billion to buy control of the cleaning services company. In terms of the deal, which values Servest at R4.5-billion, Servest's management and staff will be awarded 24% of the company through an employees' share scheme.The deal means KTH will go from being a black empowerment company to becoming a pan-African company, according to Nkululeko Sowazi, KTH's chairman.The purchase will give KTH exposure to 2 400 African and UK sites .KTH is also in the final stages of concluding a deal in Nigeria, according to Jacob Hinson, the group's chief investment officer.Hinson said $50-million (R606-million) had been earmarked for Nigeria and $35-million had been invested in Ghana when it acquired Fidelity Bank Ghana last year.KTH has also parked $100-millionfor acquisitions in the East African bloc.The group has R15-billion worth of assets, and has done deals worth about R3.3-billion since 2011.Over the same period, it disposed of its stakes in blue-chip companies such as Investec, FirstRand and Bytes Technology, for a total of R5.1-billion.KTH is one of several South African companies hunting for growth opportunities elsewhere in Africa as South Africa's economic growth dwindles.Sanlam has put R3-billion aside for its Africa expansion strategy, and MMI has earmarked R1.3-billion.The Public Investment Corporation invests 10% of its portfolio outside South Africa, with half of that - about R50-billion - earmarked for other African countries.Vuyisa Nkonyeni, KTH's CEO, said the group preferred to be an activist investor, choosing companies where it could influence strategy."We are looking to invest in companies where we become shareholders of reference," Nkonyeni said.KTH bought out and delisted Kagiso Media, the parent company of JacarandaFM and East Coast Radio, for R1.8-billion.The KTH and Blackstar partnership known as Tiso Blackstar Group recently bought Times Media Group, the owners of this newspaper. The deal also resulted in Tiso Blackstar acquiring a 22.9% equity interest in KTH...
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