Steinhoff finalises share sale in car dealer network, names B-BBEE partner
FIN24 / 27 NOVEMBER 2019 - 10:17 / JAN CRONJE
Steinhoff [JSE:SNH] on Wednesday named Kapela Holdings as its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment partner in its deal to sell its shareholding in car dealer network Unitrans.
The retail conglomerate in March announced the share sale in Unitrans, which operates 99 dealerships throughout South Africa, but did not at the time name its B-BBEE partner.
Steinhoff is selling 74.9% of the car dealership's share capital to CFAO Holdings South Africa, a 100%-owned subsidiary of CFAO, which falls under Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
On Wednesday it said that Kapela had executed a share purchase agreement to buy the remaining 25.1% interest in Unitrans.
Steinhoff did not give an estimated price for the transaction.
"The closing of this second transaction is expected in the upcoming weeks," the CFAO group and Unitrans said in a joint statement.
"We believe there are strong mutual benefits for our two groups and we are looking forward to engage this new exciting period for our employees,” said Richard Bielle, CFAO's chairperson and CEO, and Brynn Stephendon, the head of Unitrans, in a joint communiqué.
Louis du Preez, the CEO of Steinhoff, said in a statement that the closing of the transaction was "another successful step" as the Stellenbosch-headquartered company continues to simplify its portfolio and deleverage its balance sheet.
The Unitrans Motors Group will be rebranded as CFAO Motors.
Steinhoff shares were trading at 85 cents per share at 10:15 on Wednesday, near their all-time low of 80 cents per share.
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