CAPE TOWN, April 24 (Reuters) – South Africa’s state-owned
Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) will over the next five
years divest some shares from its holdings in listed and
unlisted companies, a senior official said on Tuesday.
IDC did not say how much it plans to divest from its 80
billion rand ($10.17 billion) portfolio or release details on
what firms are on its chopping block. It will keep its strategic
stakes in petrochemical company Sasol and iron ore
miner Kumba.
“The divestment from mature investments is very much part of
the IDC’s business model,” Gert Gouws, the IDC’s chief financial
officer told journalists.
The IDC, which invests in green energy industries, mining
and the manufacturing sectors of Africa’s largest economy, has a
13 percent stake in Kumba and just under 8 percent in Sasol.
Gouws said the value of the IDC’s shares in listed companies
was in excess of 50 billion rand, while in unlisted companies it
was “north” of 30 billion rand.
“We can expect over the next five years to increase our
borrowings very significantly to manage that debt-to-equity,
which is currently 12 percent, to closer to the 30 percent,
possibly even a bit more,” he said.
($1 = 7.8637 South African rand)
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)
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