Johannesburg - Bidvest Group, South Africa’s second-biggest company by revenue, will list its food services unit with a net book value of R2.8 billion on the JSE at the end of next month as part of a split of the business.
Credit: INDEPENDENT MEDIA
A look at the Bidvest Foodservice website in Johannesburg. The unit will be spun off from Bidvest. Picture: Nicholas RamaSeparating Bidvest Foodservice from the industrials unit would provide greater focus “and enable management to identify opportunities both locally and abroad”, the company said yesterday.
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The company will transfer the food services assets into a new business, called BidCorp, and then list that entity on the JSE on May 30. Investors will get one BidCorp share for each Bidvest share they own.
Bidvest, which has interests ranging from car dealerships to catering and pharmaceutical products, announced in February that it would sell shares in its food services business in Johannesburg, 15 months after abandoning a plan to list the unit in London.
The company is also seeking to expand outside its home market, where the economy may grow at the slowest pace this year since the 2009 recession, according to government forecasts, amid falling commodity prices and the worst drought in more than a century.
Global business
The international services, trading and distribution company that operated on five continents (all except North America) said it was proud of its South African roots and place on the JSE, but was “a global business with further international growth on the horizon, both within our food and industrial businesses”.
It added that the separation of Bidvest into two distinct businesses was the culmination of a natural progression over many years. Bid Corporation, a global food service business operating in multiple geographies, would be spun off, leaving the remaining Bidvest Industrial as a diversified industrial group with a staff of about 117 000 people and an annual turnover of R93bn.
The deal is subject to shareholder approval, which will be sought at a general meeting on May 16. Bidvest shares were up 2.29 percent to R365 at the close of the JSE yesterday.
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