JSE set to look into Advtech share deals

THE JSE would look into share dealings made by the acting chairman of private education company Advtech following a takeover approach from rival Curro Holdings, it said.

“We are looking at it now,” Peter Redman, a senior technical advisor at the JSE’s market regulation division, said on Friday in response to a query. He was referring to the purchases of shares in May by the family trust of former Advtech director Jeffrey Livingstone.

Livingstone was the acting chairman of Advtech at the time, but retired from that role and as a director of the firm at the end of June.

Advtech said it had investigated the trades by Livingstone and that all of the company’s internal policies and procedures had been adhered to and complied with.

Livingstone could not be immediately reached for comment via the company.

Redman said it was still too early to say what the outcome of the regulator’s checks could reveal.

Curro said in a filing to the stock exchange last week that it had submitted a “firm expression of interest” to Advtech’s chairman and its chief executive on April 29, which contained an offer price of R13 per share.

The share trades by Livingstone’s family trust were carried out on May 25 and 26 and executed at less than R10 per share, according to JSE data. The total value of the trades was almost R900 000 at the time.

On June 25, shares in Advtech rose almost 16 percent to R12.75 in late morning trading after the company first publicly announcing that it had received a buyout proposal from a third party. They pulled back to close up 4.5 percent at R11.52 that day.

On Friday, Advtech shares traded closed at R12.15 on the JSE, down 0.82 percent.