AMABHUNGANE: Peresec — trusted JSE captain, or feared corporate pirate?
How the JSE’s biggest broker captured billion-rand companies ‘on the cheap’.
In 2018, a group of prominent executives and investors, all linked to the JSE, allegedly initiated a series of low-cost takeovers of major South African companies using questionable and "unlawful" tactics. The primary issue is that they failed to declare their cooperation, allowing them to bypass a legal obligation to offer to buy out other shareholders.
This obligation, outlined in the Companies Act, is triggered when a group of investors collectively holds 35% of a company, indicating effective control. Peresec and its associates argue that their breaches were "inadvertent" and claim the oversight was due to a misinterpretation of legislation. If investors seize control of a company without proper share buyout arrangements, they are left without the necessary resources to manage the company, potentially leading to a complete change in direction to serve the new controllers' objectives.
This situation raises serious concerns about market integrity and the effectiveness of regulatory bodies, such as the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP), charged with overseeing such matters.
Written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
