COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Harmony Gold reports fatality at Tshepong North

Harmony Gold said an employee was killed during an early morning fall-of-ground (FOG) incident at the Tshepong North mine near Odendaalrus in the Free State.

The family and relevant authorities have been informed, with the affected area closed while investigations are under way.

"We wish to extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased," CEO Peter Steenkamp said in a statement. "The safety of our employees remains our foremost priority and we continue our efforts to ensure these tragedies do not occur."

The death at Tshepong North comes a month after Harmony reported two employees lost their lives at its Kusasalethu mine following a fall of ground incident caused by a seismic event in Carletonville, Gauteng.

In August, the miner had reported that six people lost their lives in mine-related incidents in the course of its year to end-June. The loss of life injury frequency rate improved to 0.06 per million hours worked in 2023 compared to 0.13 per million hours worked for 2022.-Fin24

Steinhoff set to be liquidated

The liquidators of Steinhoff International have set a liquidation date of 13 October, after which it will delist and its shares shall cease to exist.

Steinhoff's shareholders had voted to dissolve the company and delist it from the Johannesburg and Frankfurt stock exchanges in July, with around 99% approval during a meeting in Amsterdam that was poorly attended.

The decision to delist was largely a foregone conclusion, given that a Dutch court had already certified Steinhoff's plan to switch from a publicly listed company owned by shareholders to a delisted group under the control of its creditors.

In exchange for delisting and handing over economic control to its creditors, Steinhoff has been granted a three-year debt repayment holiday. The company had been battling in the wake of SA's biggest ever accounting scandal, and still had about a €10.2 billion (R200 billion) debt burden.

Following the delisting, Steinhoff's stock will be converted into a type of equity called contingent value rights (CVRs). The group's creditors will receive 80% of these CVRs. Shareholders will receive the remaining 20%, though the value of this remains unclear.-Fin24

Life Healthcare inks R21bn deal

Private hospital group Life Healthcare said it has inked a deal to sell its UK diagnostics business Alliance Medical that values it at R21.3 billion, and it intends to return the net proceeds of sale to shareholders.

The sale to UK investment group Icon Infrastructure follows an expression of interest, the group said, with net proceeds - after settling debt and expenses like transaction costs - expected to amount to about R8.4 billion.

Life Healthcare said it intends to return the net proceeds to shareholders, the majority by way of a special dividend.

Valued at about R29.4 billion on the JSE, the group currently operates 65 healthcare facilities, with 9 226 beds, in South Africa, and one facility in Botswana. This accounted for just over 70% of its revenue in 2022.

It agreed to acquire Alliance Medical in 2016 for as much as £800m (about R14.2 billion at the time), and an initial cash consideration of £553 million. This provided a strong position for diagnostic imaging, molecular imaging, and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing across the UK and Europe.-Fin24

Sanari Capital raises R1.25 billion

Sanari Capital, a majority black-and women-owned South African private equity firm, has raised R1.25 billion ($65 million) for its growth fund from new investors that included the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Alexforbes Investments.

The capital raise was the second closing round of fundraising by the Sanari 3S Growth Fund and puts it on course to raise a targeted US$100 million.

The PIC is a state-owned asset manager that oversees the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), while Alexforbes is the largest provider of multi-manager investment portfolios and related services in Southern Africa, with R450 billion in assets under management and administration.

"This funding will play a pivotal role in addressing structural economic imbalances, promoting transformation, fostering economic growth, creating jobs, and delivering both environmental and financial returns," Sanari Capital's CEO Samantha Pokroy said in a statement.

The investment by the PIC and Alexforbes complements Sanari Capital's existing investor base, which includes the 27four Black Business Growth Fund, the Telkom Retirement Fund and the Motor Industry Retirement Funds through the RisCura Manager Development Programme, and National Fund for Municipal Workers (NFMW).-Fin24