Grand Parade Investments (GPI), a black-owned consortium that has a 19 percent stake in SunWest's GrandWest casino, is keen to increase its stake in the casino and will issue 12.6 million shares at R6.50 a share to new corporate investors and existing shareholders.
Chairman Hassen Adams said the sale would enable GPI to increase its stake in SunWest from 19 percent to 30 percent, a critical move when it comes to pleasing the licensing authorities in the Western Cape.
The move did not come without controversy, though.
Just last month Sancino and Blue Bay Partners brought an urgent application before the Cape high court for an order interdicting and restraining GPI from calling the general meeting needed to consider various resolutions, including the issuing of these shares.
So far, the battle is going the way of GPI, with the court ruling that the general meeting could go ahead, but that the new scheme (which was approved by about 70 percent of shareholders) could not be effected until the court heard objections on September 13.
Several directors - Crispin Sonn, Ragavan Moonsamy and Solomzi Tshiki - were axed in the aftermath of the battle. The board is looking for replacements.
SECTIONAL TITLE Banks, which are looking for effective ways to provide R42 billion in loans to owner-occupiers for low-income housing, should look to sectional title developments.
Although these are mainly found in middle class suburbs, where they have replaced stand-alone homes in many parts of the country's major cities, they could work out as the cheapest way for poor people to get into home ownership.
However, warns Charles Coetzee, the chief executive of Propell Levy Finance, "unsophisticated people" are at risk of being taken for a ride and would need training to understand the need for bodies corporate to budget properly, and the rules and regulations governing ownership of this type of property, if they were not to have their homes repossessed by banks. The legislation governing sectional title was complicated and difficult for unsophisticated people to understand.
Coetzee, whose business is bailing out bodies corporate, said he had built a loan book of about R30 million in the past six years.
Problems were caused by unplanned big-ticket repairs and owners who had fallen behind on levies.
Even in more up-market areas, Coetzee said that out of every 100 owners, there were always about 20 whose payments were not up to date. In most cases, this was because jobs had been lost or because of medical emergencies, but a few never made any attempt to pay. In poorer areas, where families were closer to the breadline and unemployment was rife, this could be an even more severe problem.
It was vital for them to be given training if the billions of rands to be loaned for low-cost housing were not to result, in five years' time, in developments becoming slums and thousands of people losing their homes.
TAIWANESE STEEL China Steel, Taiwan's largest steel maker, and its unit Dragon Steel plan to spend a total of $6.1 billion (R41 billion) over the next six years to expand production capacity.
According to Bloomberg, the investment will raise China Steel and its affiliates' total annual capacity of steel products by 48 percent to 20 million tons.
China Steel is expanding capacity to meet Taiwan's demand.
The island imports about 8 million tons of steel a year, according to officials.
With wannabe parent China soaking up all the steel it can, this is a wise move as it is always difficult to compete with very deep pockets.
And it'll be good for South Africa too. More global production will lower the world price of steel, which we need for the ambitious infrastructure programme, and boost demand for iron ore, which we export.