RMB Holdings being sold in South Africa – BusinessTech

RMB Holdings, which was created as the original holding company of the South African bank, is being sold.

While many South Africans may know Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) as a retail and investment bank, RMB Holdings is now primarily focused on property.

The company was established in 1987 as a holding company for the bank. It was listed on the JSE in 1992 following its takeover of Momentum Life.

In 1998, the holding company partnered with Anglo American’s financial services assets, creating the FirstRand Group.

FNB, RMB, Wesbank, and Ashburton Investments are some of the companies that are part of FirstRand.

At the time, RMB Holdings held approximately 34% of the FirstRand group. While having a large banking stake, the JSE-listed company started focusing heavily on property.

In 2020, RMB Holdings unbundled its stake in FirstRand, shifting its focus solely to the construction sector.

This shifted the company’s strategy from being a patient long-term strategic shareholder to an investment holding company focused on monetising its underlying property-related investments.

The group is now set for a new era, with AttBid offering to acquire all of RMB Holdings’ issued ordinary share capital.

The deal will exclude all shares held by Atterbury Property Fund Proprietary Limited and the treasury shares controlled by RMH.

The offer will be made for a cash consideration of R0.47 per offer share, payable in cash.

Rationale for the deal

Since unbundling its FirstRand share, RMB Holdings (RMH) has considered options to monetise either its property portfolio as a whole or its property assets individually.

This is especially true for its 38.5% interest in Atterbury Property Holdings. No compelling offers have been made for Atterbury.

RMB Holdings said this is likely due to its minority position in Atterbury, intensive capital requirements, and a lack of a firm dividend policy.

Therefore, AttBid, which is already 49% owned by Atterbury, is the most natural acquirer of RMH Property.

The deal gives RMH shareholders the option to realise immediate, certain value at the prevailing market price, which should be considered against the costs of running a listing company.

It also warned that there may also be future capital requirements from Atterbury, which may cumulatively lead to significant future value erosion.

Thus, when considering all relevant quantitative and qualitative factors, the board concluded that the acquisition is aligned with its modernisation strategy to realise value for shareholders.

Should the offer meet the conditions precedent, AttBid will hold 71.65% of RMH’s shares, while Atterbury will hold the remaining 28.35%, subject to the impact of treasury shares.

Should AttBid acquire all of the offer shares, RMH will be delisted from the JSE. The timeline for the acquisition can be found below: