Curro trades probed

FSCA: REVIEWS POSSIBLE INSIDER TRADING AHEAD OF R7.2BN BUYOUT OFFER

- Ryk van Niekerk

THE MAN. Jannie Mouton. The trades generated around R31 million for an undisclosed beneficial owner, R21 million for the PIC, and R74 million for three entities owned by the Jannie Mouton Familietrust. Picture: Supplied

(Supplied)

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is assessing a complaint of possible insider trading in Curro shares in the weeks and months leading up to the Jannie Mouton Foundation's R7.2 billion offer to acquire all remaining shares in the private school group.

The regulator confirmed to Moneyweb that one of the statutory bodies responsible for monitoring market activity had reported suspicious trades in the months before the announcement to the FSCA, and that the “complaint is under assessment”.

A Moneyweb analysis of Curro's shareholder registers since last year identified a series of unusually timed transactions by five different entities in the period of less than six months before the offer was announced.

The FSCA did not identify the parties involved, the nature of the suspicious transactions, or which entity reported them.

The trades preceded Curro's Sens announcement on 27 August of a R7.2 billion offer in which the Jannie Mouton Foundation proposed to buy out minority shareholders, delist the company and convert it into a public benefit organisation that would reinvest all future profits into building new schools and providing bursaries.

The announcement caused Curro's share price to surge by 60% on the day.

Jan Mouton, a trustee of the foundation and son of Curro founder Jannie Mouton, described the transaction to RSG Geldsake as unprecedented, saying: "According to our research, this R7.2 billion donation is the largest in South Africa's history".