NASPERS STAKE UNBUNDLING
Institutions and Caxton buy up Novus shares
More than 38% of printing group Novus Holdings’s shares have been placed with institutions following implementation of the unbundling of Naspers’s controlling stake on September 26. Print and publishing group Caxton has emerged as one of the buyers with a stake of about 5%. The Competition Tribunal confirmed the Competition Commission’s decision that Naspers had to reduce its holding in Novus to 19% from 66%. The tribunal ruled the unbundling had to be completed by around November. Ironically, the commission’s ruling was prompted by Caxton, which secured intervention status during the competition authorities’ consideration of Novus’s listing in 2015. Caxton argued that the listing constituted a change of control and had to be approved by the competition authorities. One institutional adviser said Investec stepped in to ensure an orderly placement of the shares in a bid to avoid heavy selling pressure, which would knock the Novus share price. The majority of Naspers’s international s...
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