Taken on trust?
MARC HASENFUSS: Trustco hurtles further into corporate weirdness
In an eyebrow raising deal, Namibian investment company Trustco is selling 20% of its Legal Shield subsidiary
I thought it might be a while before I saw deal more bizarre than that of Namibian investment company Trustco — which has operations spanning the insurance, banking, property and education sectors — opting to pay R3.6bn in scrip to acquire diamond mining assets with no recent profit or operational track record from its own CEO and controlling shareholder. But last Friday Trustco hurtled further into corporate weirdness when it proposed selling 20% of its key subsidiary, Legal Shield, to US-based investment entity Riskowitz Value Fund (RVF) for R1.2bn. A few things jump right out straight away. The proposed deal infers a value of R6bn for Legal Shield, which owns insurance companies Namibian Trustco Life and Trustco Insurance, as well as an investment segment that includes property, air services and strategic media services. Before the proposed deal was announced, Trustco boasted a market capitalisation of only R4.6bn. So RVF is willing to pay a hefty premium for an unlisted slab of ...
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