Naspers to extend Yizani share offer

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At a special meeting held earlier on Tuesday, 15 December 2009,, Welkom Yizani shareholders accepted a proposal by media group Naspers to restructure and to extend the Welkom Yizani share offer by a further two years, to December 2013.

In 2006 Naspers sold a 15% stake in Media24 Holdings to BEE shareholders.

At the time, this was the largest BEE share offer in South Africa's print media industry.

According to Jakes Gerwel, chairman of Welkom Yizani, the global recession has had a significant impact on traditional print media companies.

This, in turn, affected Media24's profitability.

"The value of the Welkom Yizani shares has not grown and the recession isn't over.

This means that, at the end of the minimum investment period in December 2011, the loans outstanding would not have been brought down as much as was hoped for."

At the time of the offer in 2006, over 107,000 shareholders paid R10 per share, which had a value of R50 per share. The minimum investment period of the offer was five years.

The remaining R40 per share was to be repaid from the dividends earned as Media24 grew.

"By acting responsibly and pro-actively we hope to provide shareholders with a better opportunity to profit from their investment," said Gerwel.

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