Novus has quietly been building a position in Mustek, and on Friday revealed that it had acquired more than 35 of the tech firm's equity, requiring it under South African law to make a mandatory offer to other shareholders.
Novus, which is led by CEO Andre van der Veen, confirmed it will now do just that by offering other Mustek shareholders
- A cash consideration of R13/share below the closing price on Thursday of R13.67/share or
- A cash amount of R7/share plus one ordinary share in Novus for each Mustek share held or
- Two Novus shares for each Mustek share tendered.
Often approaches such as this one result in the target firm being delisted. But Mustek CEO Hein Engelbrecht, who has said he won't sell his shares, told TechCentral by phone on Friday that the intention is for the company to remain listed on the JSE.
Engelbrecht, Mustek MD Neels Coetzee and the DK Trust - a trust created by late Mustek founder David Kan - have said they will not accept the mandatory offer from Novus as they wish to remain invested. They do, however, support the transaction and together hold 11.7 million Mustek shares, or 20.3 of the total.
But why is a printing and packaging company, which recently bought several community newspapers from Media24, interested in a technology company. Some analysts TechCentral spoke to on Friday expressed surprise at the move, saying there is no real obvious synergy between the companies.
