Johannesburg - The scramble for the assets of New Africa Investments Limited (Nail) is about to hot up, with the losing Johnnic Communications-led consortium announcing yesterday that it had lodged a complaint with the Securities Regulation Panel and the Competition Tribunal.
The Tiso-led consortium claimed at the weekend that its offer for Nail was unconditional and had been accepted by 52 percent of Nail's non-voting shareholders and 27.9 percent of ordinary shareholders.
The Johncom consortium, which consists of Kagiso Media and Caxton, said it had sent a letter of demand to the Tiso-led consortium's attorneys, calling on the consortium to halt its acquisition.
"We will be seeking recourse through all of the appropriate regulators," said Roger Jardine, the chief executive of Kagiso Media.
The Johncom-led consortium has offered to buy Nail assets at R10.66 a share, to be paid in a mix of shares and cash.
The Tiso-led consortium, which consists of Investec Bank, Capricorn, the Mineworkers Investment Company, Safika and Primedia, has put a firm cash offer of R10.50 a share on the table.
Nail's board will respond to Tiso today.
Nail received Johncom's offer last month and recommended that its shareholders accept the bid, but the shareholders have since shown their approval for Tiso's offer.
"We remain hopeful that the Nail shareholders will get a chance to vote on our offer as its real value sits at R11 and returns offer better value to shareholders," said Jardine.
The Johncom consortium was also concerned about special arrangements between Tiso and certain Nail shareholders.
Tiso had made special arrangements with Phaphama, Nail's controlling shareholder, to implement transactions that would result in Safika, Primedia and Tiso securing ownership of most of Nail's media assets. Jardine said it was strange that Safika was offered an incentive of 20 percent of the proceeds from the sale of Sowetan, which would amount to more than R50 million, and a corporate finance fee, while other shareholders were being asked to settle for a lower price.
Connie Molusi, Johncom's chief executive, said:
"We have misgivings as to the import of the proposed Tiso transaction."
Johncom ended unchanged at R16.60 yesterday. Nail ended unchanged at R9.91.