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Research archive for BAT

Brait to acquire Virgin Active

16 April 2015

Holy smokes. Brait with a monster announcement this morning, out of Malta, the little European island. Here it is, the proposed acquisition of a c.80% interest in Virgin Active and withdrawal of cautionary announcement. Brait Mauritius is proposing that they buy 80 odd percent of Active Topco, which trades under the brand Virgin Active, for 682 million Pound Sterling, or 12.21 billion Rand. The group owns 267 clubs in 9 countries across 4 continents. And of course you will know well that they are gyms, clubs, places where you can keep and get fit and healthy. Places that you know and understand that an investment in your health is an investment in the future. The health and wellness theme is something that you know we like, it is evident in our investments in healthcare and more specifically in businesses like Discovery and Nike. People who are making your life healthier and better. The share price is around half a percent off, it seems that all and sundry, the competitions authorities and the shareholders will have to now decide whether this goes ahead.

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Christo Wiese add to his Brait holding

27 November 2014

Michael makes a good point, after we saw a SENS announcement yesterday that Christo Wiese had bought 30 thousand contracts (representing 3 million ordinary Brait shares) at 73.505 Rand for a total value of 220,515,000 Rand. He suggests that Wiese must know how Brait are going to invest the cash that they are potentially left with, obviously a few hurdles to clear now. Wiese would have bought these two days ago, when the market fell hard, it fell hard again yesterday, down to 70 Rand. I wonder how leveraged he is, this takes relatively large sized you-know-whats to do this. He thinks the fall in the share price of Brait is overdone, he leveraged this, he thinks that he can make back his money quickly. Imagine the funding cost on 220 million Rand! And imagine if you were down 3.5 Rand multiplied by 3 million shares (on paper) in one day. Don't feel bad for Wiese, his shareholding in Shoprite, 15.31 percent of the business equals 87 699 198 shares. The recent final dividend, after 15 percent dividends tax, equals 162.5 million Rand paid to him mid September. Good work if you can get it! Finding a home for it you see, I am sure that it hurts a little.

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Steinhoff buying Pepco

25 November 2014

WHOA! This is big. No, this is huge. Two listed companies and another "Titan" of South African business involved in both legs have announced this morning that Steinhoff will be acquiring Brait's 37.06 percent interest in Pepkor for 15 billion Rand in cash (now you know why they raised the money - 18.2 billion Rand in August) and the issuance of 200 million Steinhoff shares at 57 Rand a piece, total consideration of 26.4 billion Rand. Not so long ago Anchor Capital valued the stake at 28.066 billion Rand, Brait seemingly sold at a discount. It does not stop there for Steinhoff, they acquire Titan Premier Investments Proprietary Limited's shares in Pepkor, which represents 52.47 percent of the company, which will be bought for 609.1 billion ordinary Steinhoff shares. And then Steinhoff will buy 2.81 percent from Pepkor management to own 92.34 percent of Pepkor. The balance will be held by Pepkor management (they obviously wanted to cash in some chips). This values Pepkor (enterprise value) at 73.382 billion Rand.

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Brait half year numbers, decent

31 October 2012

Brait reported results for the six months to end September this morning. Brait. Registered in Malta as a European company. What? Well, Malta is tiny, but has a low corporate tax rate you see, that is why it is advantageous for companies to be "domiciled" there. Someone in my very extended family once told me that there was a connection of sorts with Malta. But you know how it goes, everyone tells everyone else that they have a connection, here check it out: Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller.

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New Brait, good results.

10 November 2011

Yesterday we had interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2011 from Brait, the private equity specialists (or should I say former private equity, you will see why later). For a more detailed description of what these guys do, here goes: "Brait is an international investment group that manages third-party capital committed by a combination of international and South African investors. Its business is the raising and management of investment funds classified as Alternative Assets. The current product set includes private equity, mezzanine debt funds and a range of hedge fund solutions." Get it? Looks quite complicated with lots of moving parts.

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