Johannesburg - Nozala Investments, the black-led women's investment holding company that has successfully used special-purpose vehicle financing, has bought back its own shares for R104 million, it said yesterday.
Institutional investors had included Absa, African Merchant Bank (AMB), AMB Partners, PIC Isibaya, Investec, Sanlam, Old Mutual and Southern.
Nozala, which is focused on the mineral and energy sectors, started out in 1996 to promote the economic empowerment of women in general and black women in particular. Nozala's first investment in the mineral sector was in Kumba through the Tiso consortium. The company has also invested in Exel, an energy company tied up with Sasol.
Salukazi Dakile-Hlongwane, the chief executive of Nozala, said the company represented more than 500 000 women indirectly. She said its net asset value had grown more than 30 percent in the past year.
Nozala and its nine empowerment shareholders are contractually bound to donate 20 percent of their dividends to the Nozala Trust. To date, the company said, the trust had "created 15 companies in the poorest areas of Limpopo, Western Cape and the Free State".
Dakile-Hlongwane said the institutions' shareholding had been perceived as too high.
"This transaction removes these institutions completely from Nozala's shareholding structure."
Cobus Foster, the chief financial officer of Sanlam Private Equity, said Sanlam's investment had totalled R28.7 million.
"The time is now right to set Nozala free ... ensuring it will be reconstituted as a more fully represented empowerment company," he said.