(Recasts with bond issue)
CAPE TOWN, April 24 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Industrial
Development Corporation (IDC), a state-owned financing
institution, will raise 5 billion rand ($636 million) to invest
in domestic green economy initiatives, economic development
minister Ebrahim Patel said on Tuesday.
Patel told parliament during his budget vote speech the IDC
will issue a green bond that will be taken up by the Public
Investment Corporation with a 14 year tenure “to raise the
resources to invest actively in the green economy”.
A green bond is exempt from tax and will usually fund an
under-developed site.
The IDC also said it would over the next five years divest
some shares from its holdings in listed and unlisted companies.
IDC did not say how much it plans to divest from its 80
billion rand portfolio or release details on what shares 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 separately 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.
($1 = 7.8637 South African rand)
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf and Xola Potelwa; Editing by Jon
Herskovitz)
© Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
