Consol drops capital-raising plan
The group aimed to list on JSE and sell shares to investors to cut debt burden
Glass packaging firm Consol, which planned to ease its hefty debt burden by raising R3bn in fresh capital, has canned its proposed JSE flotation barely 10 days after publishing a pre-listing statement. On Wednesday, Consol announced that challenging market conditions had scuppered the listing and associated capital raising. It deemed the prevailing environment not conducive to the offer achieving valuation objectives and not in the company’s best interests. Business Day understands there were misgivings in the investment community around raising capital that would mostly be used to reduce debt. There was also talk that international investors were demanding in terms of the price the Consol shares were pitched at in the offer. A source noted: “The existing investors were squeezed really hard in terms of price … in the end the private equity investors were not prepared to let go at these prices.” According to the prelisting statement issued in mid-April, Consol proposed pitching 761-m...
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