Beleaguered Taste, owner of US heavyweight fast-food brands Starbucks and Domino’s Pizza in SA, has lived to fight another day. Its reprieve is thanks to a R398m rights issue underwritten by Riskowitz Value Fund (RVF). A hedge fund with a solid track record, RVF is based in New York City and was founded by expat South African Sean Riskowitz. RVF focuses on companies listed on the JSE. With RVF now having a dominant control position in Taste, a shake-up lies ahead. "In the next few weeks we will be making an announcement on big changes," says Riskowitz. Without RVF, Taste’s chances of survival were slim to nil. With the ultra-small cap running up losses at an alarming rate — R198m at the headline level in the 18 months to August — it was on the verge of running out of cash. The R398m rights issue that saved the day was finalised in January and was Taste’s largest yet, its second in nine months and fourth since August 2014. "[Taste] has raised R1.056bn of new equity from rights [issue...
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