RH Bophelo lists on the JSE in the Non-Equity sector
HEALTH services company RH Bophelo yesterday listed on the JSE as a purpose acquisition company with its shares trading largely unchanged at R10.
The company, which became the ninth listing on the bourse this year, said that it would focus its interests in the healthcare sector with the purpose of transforming the industry.
It said it would also pursue acquisitions of healthcare assets in exceptionally managed commercial entities or special situations across the South African market.
RH Bophelo joined five other companies in the Non-Equity Investments Instruments sector of the exchange which currently has a total market capitalisation of R2.17 billion.
The company was incorporated as a private company last year in December under the name Newshelf 1388 Proprietary Limited. In June the company was converted into a public company and renamed RH Bophelo Limited.
Chief executive Quinton Zunga, yesterday said “RH Bophelo will further provide investors with access to a highly sought after asset class associated with high growth, cash generative returns and direct real asset exposure to the defensive healthcare sector”.
Zunga said RH Bophelo aimed to increase access to quality healthcare among people in the lower to middle-income brackets who were not able to afford private healthcare as it was currently structured in South Africa.
He said the company would deliver traditional alternative asset class returns through a portfolio of operating.
“To achieve this, the company will invest in hospitals already in operation, brownfield projects where licences to operate are already in place as well as in other healthcare funds and related sub sectors.”
The company said it would also explore possibilities of co-investing with Razorite Healthcare and Rehabilitation Fund and other like minded companies that met its criterion.
Zunga said RH Bophelo would also remain a blackowned investment company, but would aggressively pursue interests in healthcare assets such as hospitals that provided affordable healthcare.
He said that the company would deliver traditional alternative asset class returns through a portfolio of operating companies that participate in a broad array of healthcare specific sectors whilst providing investors with day-to-day liquidity, access to a world-class management team and greater transparency.
The listing comes as Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi intensify the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI), charging that it would be compulsory for all South African citizens.
Last month Motsoaledi announced that the NHI white paper, which was approved by the cabinet, may be fully operational by 2025. He said, once the law was passed, it would become mandatory for every citizen to be on the NHI. MORE governments were likely to see their sovereign credit ratings cut this year, S&P Global said yesterday.
An average of more than one country a week has had its rating cut by the big rating agencies – S&P, Moody’s and Fitch – since the start of 2014.
A new report from S&P showed it had 30 sovereigns on downgrade warnings, or “negative outlooks” in rating firm parlance, at the start of the month, compared with just six on positive outlooks.
“This outlook distribution suggests that negative rating actions are likely to continue to outnumber positive actions over the coming 12 months,” S&P said in a mid-year review of its rating moves.
Some of the big economies with negative outlooks on their ratings included Brexit-bound Britain, which last year became the first AAA country to be cut by two rating notches at once, and still triple-A Australia.
South Africa, which is being hit by political uncertainty and weak growth, is also on the list alongside other emerging market heavyweights such as Mexico, Turkey and Brazil. – Reuters