* To sell 6.5 pct stake to staff, black investors
* Deal takes black holding in local ops to 26 pct
* To cancel 20 mln treasury shares to offset dilution
(Adds details)
JOHANNESBURG, July 12 (Reuters) – South African cement maker
Pretoria Portland Cement is to sell a 6.5 percent stake
to its staff and black investors in a deal worth about $133.4
million, to meet the country’s affirmative action rules.
PPC said the deal – the second in four years – would take
shareholding by black investors in its domestic operations to 26
percent and enable it meet the rules set out by the government.
Companies in South Africa have to meet quotas on black
ownership, employment and procurement as part of a government
drive to shift more of the mostly white-controlled economy into
the hands of the black majority.
Johannesburg-based PPC said on Thursday it would cancel
about 20 million treasury shares it bought back to help counter
the dilutive effect of the new 39.3 million shares to be issued
for the transaction.
The company’s 2,400 South African employees will be issued
68 percent of the new shares and existing and new women groups
would take up the rest.
The transaction value of about 1.1 billion rand is based on
the 30-day volume-weighted average price of PPC shares of 27.39
rand per share as of Monday, July 9.
($1 = 8.2455 South African rand)
(Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by David Cowell)
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