Jannie Mouton's R7.2 billion bid to acquire Curro Holdings

In a significant move for South Africa's education sector, Jannie Mouton, the founder of PSG and co-founder of Capitec, has put forth a staggering R7.2 billion offer to acquire Curro Holdings, the country's largest private education company.

Following the announcement on Wednesday, Curro's share price surged by an impressive 53.68%, reaching R12.31. The proposal aims to delist Curro and transform it into a non-profit organisation, as outlined in a recent statement.

Curro said its board had received an offer letter from the Jannie Mouton Stigting (Foundation) to acquire all of the issued Curro shares by way of a scheme of arrangement.

Curro’s market capitalisation at the close of trade on Tuesday was R4.52bn.

The Trust already owns 3.36% of Curro.

The offer was R13 a share, of which 6.6% would comprise cash, 79% Capitec shares, and 13.78% PSG Financial Services shares.

Curro CEO Cobus Loubser said in an interview that an independent board would be established to evaluate the fairness of the offer to shareholders, and shareholder and other regulatory approvals would still need to be obtained if the transaction were to proceed.

The offer price represents a 60% premium to the closing share price of R8.13 on August 25 on the JSE and a premium of 53% to the 30-day volume weighted average share price of the company of R8.52 per share as at the same date.

Mouton, who had also played a major role in establishing Curro, had established the Trust in 2004 as a vehicle to invest money in education for the benefit of more people in South Africa.

Since then, he had donated a portion of his wealth to the Trust to uplift South African people.

The objectives of the Trust are focused on providing bursaries and grants to learners and students in South Africa, community development and outreach, and the alleviation of poverty.

The Trust had identified Curro as an “ideal vehicle” through which to achieve these objectives, given it "is already a reputable business and has a strong and forward-thinking management team."

Loubser said Curro is a meaningful force for academic excellence in South Africa, and it appeared the aims of the Trust were aligned. The Curro group currently has about 85% black students.

“Management adopted an introspective approach to drive financial margins and returns higher rather than to expand Curro's network during the last few years in a period of anaemic economic growth...although (Curro) will continue to operate with efficiency and expansion, Curro's growth will be accelerated through reinvestment of its potential returns/surplus to scale its offering faster and further,” the offer stated.

Get your news on the go, click here to join the Cape Argus News WhatsApp channel.

Cape Argus