US shareholders get Vodacom cash

By Nicola Mawson for Telkom
Johannesburg, 02 Jun 2009

Telkom has raised R1.54 billion to pay its US shareholders who were not entitled to benefit from the Vodacom listing, the company said this morning.

The telecommunications company says it has successfully completed an accelerated bookbuilding of Vodacom shares, raising R1.54 billion for the “ineligible shareholders” through the placement of almost 29 million Vodacom shares, at R53 each.

Vodacom shares were last seen trading at R54.50. The company listed on 18 May, despite a last ditch attempt by the Congress of South African Trade Unions to derail the process through an 11^th hour court application - an action supported by the Independent Communications Authority of SA.

Vodacom's listed shareholding is Vodafone Holdings SA, at 44.9%; Vodafone Telecommunications Investments, at 20.1%; the South African government, 13.9%; and the Public Investment Corporation, owning 6.3%.

Telkom and Vodafone had determined Telkom US shareholders would be regarded as “ineligible shareholders” for the unbundling of Vodacom shares to shareholders of Telkom, which was completed on 25 May. These shareholders would not receive Vodacom shares in such a distribution.

The proceeds from the offering, after fees, expenses, taxes and charges, will be distributed to the shareholders in the proportion to the amount of Vodacom shares to which these shareholders would have been entitled.