Alpine offers to buy Cullinan

Cullinan Holdings’s largest shareholder had offered to buy the 2% stake that it did not already own, the travel and tourism group said on Friday.

Cullinan Holdings’s largest shareholder had offered to buy the 2% stake that it did not already own, the travel and tourism group said on Friday.

The offer, for up to R38m, would result in Cullinan’s delisting from the JSE.

Alpine Asset Management – a subsidiary of The Travel Corporation, which is the ultimate holding company of Cullinan – made the offer to Cullinan’s board more than a week ago. Alpine owns 98% of Cullinan, which also has marine and boating interests as well as financial services offerings.

“The recent purchase of large shareholdings in the company by Alpine has seen its interest in the company rising to 98%, which effectively removes the reason for maintaining a listing on the JSE.

“In addition, the limited tradability of Cullinan shares acts as a disincentive for employees owning Cullinan shares or options to acquire Cullinan shares,” the company said.

Alpine therefore considered that maintaining Cullinan’s listing “is of little value”. The board deemed the offer “worthy of consideration by shareholders”.

The offer represented a premium of 18.2% to the closing price of 110c a share in Cullinan as of September 21, before the company issued a cautionary announcement.

The board had appointed a subcommittee consisting of independent nonexecutive directors to oversee the process, which would involve the appointment of an independent expert to make recommendations on behalf of shareholders.

In the six months to March, Cullinan has experienced a stronger performance from its travel and tourism division, to post a 13% rise in profit before tax to R73m.

CEO Michael Tollman said Cullinan’s inbound tourism businesses had performed well after a poor 2016 financial year.