Company news in brief

Pick n Pay in acquisition with Tomis

Pick n Pay said has reached an agreement to buy Western Cape-based meat group Tomis for R340 million, a move aimed at ensuring a higher-quality and more consistent red meat offering for customers.

Established in 1993, Tomis is a state-of-the-art abattoir and meat processing and packaging business, supplying lamb, beef and other quality fresh meat products to wholesalers and retailers, including Pick n Pay.

Tomis recorded sales of R720 million in its 2022 financial year, the group said. Pick n Pay, valued at about R18.5 billion on the JSE, generates about R100 billion in annual turnover.

The transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals.

Pick n Pay said, however, that the acquisition would "significantly enhance" the group's fresh meat offer, it said, including its ability to develop and roll out value-added products.

It will also result in a reduced cost for meat, providing the ability to give customers greater value, while also offering reliable supply, and synergies with the group's centralised supply chain distribution network. – Fin24



Advanced Health rockets after buyout offer

JSE-listed Advanced Health, which operates day hospitals in South Africa, said its controlling shareholder has offered to buy out most of its minorities, having concluded that almost decade on the local bourse hadn't resulted in its goal of access to institutional capital.

Eenhede Konsultante, which owns almost 58% of the company, has offered 80c per share, a 100% premium to its share price as of Wednesday's open. This is to acquire about 29% of Advanced Health's shares it and a grouping that includes three other shareholders don't already own.

Advanced Health's shares rocketed 87.5% on Wednesday to 75c, valuing it at R374 million.

Advanced Health, which had been valued at just under R200 million on the JSE, listed in 2014, and as of 2022, it operated nine day hospitals in South Africa, and five in Australia.

In March, its shareholders had approved the R522 million sale of its majority stake in the Australian subsidiary, Presmed. – Fin24



German property giant probed

Authorities have raided properties in seven European countries as part of an investigation into alleged accounting fraud at German real estate giant Adler, the company and prosecutors said.

Twenty-one sites, including business premises, apartments and a lawyer's office, were searched in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg and Britain.

Ex-board members of Adler, who are German, Austrian and English nationals aged between 38 and 66, are under investigation, the prosecutors said.

They are accused of having misrepresented, or having aided in the misrepresentation of the company's balance sheets between 2018 and 2020, prosecutors said.

Adler said it was "cooperating with the authorities and fully supports a clarification of the facts as quickly as possible."

The company has been in turmoil since the allegations emerged, with its shares losing more than 95% of their value in Frankfurt. – Fin24/AFP