Santova shares rise after announcing R417.7m acquisition of The Seabourne Group

SHARES in Santova, the JSE-listed international supply chain solutions group, surged over 9% on Friday after after it had acquired 100% of The Seabourne Group, a logistics provider across the UK and Europe, for about R417.7 million.

- EDWARD WEST

Santova's share traded 9.33% higher to close at R8.20 on the JSE on Friday.

The Seabourne Group has nine offices and warehouses in the UK, Netherlands, and France. Its services include Customs Clearing & Freight Forwarding, fulfilment centres, and boutique services such as in the publishing sector, mainly in subscription magazines.

Santova is already represented in 11 countries through its offices in South Africa, Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore, UK, US, and Vietnam. Santova's directors owned 21.05% of the group shares as of February 28, 2025, and there were no other single shareholders with a stake of more than 15.3% at the time.

Seabourne's South African subsidiary, Seabourne Inxpress, has been excluded from the transaction and has been separately unbundled pre-completion.

Santova's directors said in a statement they made the acquisition because the ability to leverage well-located fulfilment centres and technologies will be key to remaining competitive and meeting growing customer expectations, as larger, more complicated supply chains of multinational clients become more frequent.