Brimstone disposes of 13.5m Life shares

Empowerment group Brimstone Investment Corporation has made its second big disposal this week, selling a pile of shares in private hospitals group Life Healthcare.

A Sens announcement on Wednesday detailed the sale of about 13.5-million Life shares at an average price of R26.78 per share to raise almost R362m.

This follows hard on the heels of Brimstone confirming the sale of its 0.9% shareholding in food conglomerate Tiger Brands for R387m.

Brimstone simply stated the sale was executed in order to realise a portion of its investment and proceeds would be used to repay certain outstanding debt funding obligations.

Market watchers reckoned Brimstone might be poised for a big deal with nearly R750m raised from the Tiger and Life share sales this week. However, chairman Fred Robertson said that although the company was always on the look-out for new opportunities, there was nothing on the table at the moment.

In recent months, Brimstone — which is anchored by large investments in fishing groups Sea Harvest and Oceana Group — has made forays into JSElisted investment company Long4Life and private education specialist Stadio as well as unlisted FPG Property Fund.

Brimstone’s connection to Life harks back to 2005 when the company, along with fellow empowerment heavyweight Mvelaphanda, led a buyout of Life (the old Afrox Healthcare).

Brimstone reduced its initial 22.6% holding in Life when the company was relisted on the JSE in 2010, selling a portion of its shares to repay debt and also unbundling a parcel of shares to shareholders. On Wednesday, Brimstone indicated that its remaining holding in Life was about 51.3-million shares, or a shareholding of 3.54%.

Brimstone's ordinary shares were up nearly 5% at R12.65 in light afternoon trading on Wednesday, but the more liquid N-shares were slightly down at R11.50.