Shares in Cullinan Holdings surged yesterday after the travel and tourism group said it had acquired all the tourism interests of Imperial Holdings through the issue of 81.8 million shares.
The businesses acquired include Springbok Atlas Tours and Safaris, and Springbok Atlas Coach Charter, the largest coach operator in South Africa.
The transaction gives Imperial Holdings about 10 percent of Cullinan Holdings.
The biggest shareholder in Cullinan is the Travel Corporation, a travel group based in Switzerland in which the South African Tollman family has a large interest.
Bidvest is the other major shareholder in the diversified Cullinan group, which includes outbound travel specialist Thompsons Travel.
The transaction is subject to approval by the Competition Commission. The smaller companies being acquired by Cullinan include Grosvenor Tours, which focuses on luxury tailor-made travel to Africa including incentives, events and conference services, Eastgate Safaris to the northern Kruger Park and surrounding areas and 74.9 percent of Edusport, a sports, events and incentives tour operator.
Hubert Brody, the chief executive of Imperial Holdings, explained: “The disposal of the tourism division is in line with our strategy of focusing on our core industries – namely logistics, car rental, automotive and industrial distribution and financial services.”
Mohammed Akerjee, a director of Imperial, said the group had decided to divest itself of its tourism and coach division, which was no longer a big part of its business.
He said the Springbok Atlas charter coach company had more vehicles than Cullinan’s Hylton Ross and iKapa firms.
Michael Tollman, the chief executive of Cullinan Holdings, said: “These travel businesses will contribute to the growth in profitability of the Cullinan group and will allow for the expansion of our African footprint.
“Assuming current market conditions are upheld these iconic brands will benefit from being part of the travel-focused Cullinan group.”
Explaining that all travel businesses within the Cullinan group were managed and operated independently, he said the former Imperial businesses would continue to be run by their own management teams.
“Our initial plans are to upgrade the Springbok Atlas charter fleet and to migrate the Springbok Atlas Touring and Safari business onto a new state-of-the-art reservations system,” Tollman said.
Cullinan Holdings leapt 37.61 percent to R1.50 and Imperial Holdings gained 1.49 percent to R209.57.