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Green light for CSH deal

By Iain Scott, ITWeb group consulting editor
Johannesburg, 18 Nov 2004

The Competition Tribunal has given its unconditional approval to Bytes Technology Group`s (BTG`s) proposed acquisition of CS Holdings (CSH).

At the same time, the groups have announced the appointment of BTG CEO David Redshaw and financial director Peter Riskowitz to the CSH board.

The only remaining condition precedent relating to the offer, is the acceptance of the offer by CSH shareholders owning in aggregate at least 90% of the issued share capital of CSH.

This would allow BTG to invoke section 440K of the Companies Act, entitling it to acquire compulsorily the shares of those shareholders who do not accept the offer. The acquisition would be carried out under the same terms as the original offer.

BTG is offering to acquire the entire issued share capital of CSH by issuing BTG shares in the ratio of one BTG share for every 37 CSH shares held, which equates to a price of 15.68c per CSH share.

The offer was originally meant to close in October, but has twice been extended to allow for the fulfilment of all the conditions relating to the deal.

The offer remains open, but no new closing date has yet been disclosed.

BTG is urging CSH shareholders wanting to accept the offer to do so immediately. Once a 90% acceptance level is reached, the group will be able to invoke provisions of section 440K and also issue the consideration shares within five business days of the acceptance.

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