Minority shareholders in Howden Africa are casting a jaundiced eye over proposals to delist the perennially profitable and cash-flush industrial services group from the JSE. Howden Africa, which specialises in providing fans and heat exchangers as well as environmental controls to Eskom and the mining sector, has already caused much consternation among its minority shareholders by hoarding a huge cash pile and refusing to pay dividends. It is, ironically, the dividend sacrifice made by shareholders over the past five years that will be effectively mobilised to execute the contentious delisting exercise. Dividends were unceremoniously halted in 2013 after US industrial giant Colfax bought control of Howden Africa's UK parent company, Howden Group. With the dividend taps turned off, Howden Africa's strong operational cash flows rapidly topped up the group's bank balance to more than R1.3bn. At the end of June, Howden Africa's cash pile represented a chunky 56% of the group's R2.3bn ma...
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