CAPE TOWN - Adrenna Property Group will make a R1.30 per share cash offer to shareholders ahead of a plan to delist, because onerous JSE requirements have allegedly stymied its growth.
The R1.30 represents a 63.2percent premium to the 30-day volume average traded price on the JSE up to June 25 and a 35.1percent premium to the 30-day average of 96.25cents per share up to August 15. The share price opened at R1 and was untraded most of the day.
Adrenna’s management said yesterday that they wish to delist, because the property investment company has had no reason to resort to the market to raise funds since listing in January 1999, other than a vendor placement in June 1999. And because it essentially held only a single asset, a commercial industrial complex in Goodwood, Western Cape, a listing was of no benefit to shareholders as it increased the administrative burden on the company and its executives.
A listing had also not enhanced the marketability of its shares or market image because of the company’s relatively small size, management said.
Furthermore, efforts to diversify in the past year to enhance shareholder wealth had been delayed by “onerous and costly compliance requirements associated with being a listed entity.”
The company said shareholders holding 36.88percent of the shares had agreed to approve the scheme, with shareholders holding more than 60percent opting to retain their shares after the delisting.
Adrenna last year attempted, after some years of very little expansion, to diversify, by lending A$2million (R20.84m) to East Sydney Private Hospital in Australia. Its auditors flagged an irregularity about this, but Adrenna argued the investment was meant to invest in a strong currency and enable it to acquire the skills to replicate operations locally.
At the time Adrenna management noted: “The reason for the termination of the agreement was the difficulty in obtaining the relevant historical information (in a format) for inclusion in the circular to shareholders in accordance with the JSE listing requirements and the costs therewith, which far outweigh the benefits of the original transaction,” the company said.