Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Absa Capital Private Equity and Vantage Capital acquire Kwikspace

Absa Capital further underscored its private equity credentials today when a consortium of private equity investors, co-led by Absa Capital Private Equity (Pty) Ltd (Absa Capital Private Equity) and Vantage Capital Group (Pty) Ltd (Vantage Capital), announced that they had acquired the entire issued ordinary share capital of the JSE-listed Kwikspace Modular Buildings Ltd (Kwikspace).

The consortium comprises Absa Capital Private Equity, Vantage Capital and certain members of the Kwikspace management team.

The offer - R8 a share for a total consideration of R683 m – was made to acquire the entire issued ordinary share capital of Kwikspace, excluding those shares held by Vantage Capital and certain other shares held by the current management team.

Andre Pieterse, CEO of Absa Capital Private Equity, said that he was delighted to acquire Africa’s largest and most diverse manufacturer of factory-built modular homes, clinics, offices and classrooms.

“The offer was implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement between Kwikspace and its shareholders, other than Vantage and Kwikspace management, in terms of section 311 of the Companies Act,” said Pieterse.

Mutle Mogase, Vantage Capital’s director on the board of Kwikspace commented: “We have a long-standing relationship with the company which dates back to 2006 when we first acquired a 30% shareholding as BEE investor. This buyout represents a new and exciting phase in this relationship.”

All conditions precedent to the scheme were fulfilled and the scheme consideration was paid to shareholders on Monday, 23 February 2009.

The listing of Kwikspace shares was terminated at the commencement of today’s trading.

Kwikspace has been building a wide variety of modular building units for more than 30 years and exporting to many parts of Africa, South America and the Middle East - supplying customers in the private, industrial, commercial and government sectors.

Kwikspace has factories in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, with sales offices situated in most major cities throughout the country.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Reinet invests in SynthaSite

SynthaSite, the leading online Web site builder, today announced it has secured $20 million in Series B financing from Luxembourg-based Reinet Fund S.C.A. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate the development of its Web site creation tools and its peer-to-peer e-commerce platform through organic growth and strategic acquisitions in both its San Francisco and Cape Town, South Africa locations.

In a tough economic environment, SynthaSite raised $20 million in the company's second round of financing. By making it easy for anyone to build and host a Web site, the company has grown its customer base to over one million registered users since raising its $5 million Series A round in November 2007. SynthaSite prioritizes its development based on user feedback and has recently introduced a number of new features including an enhanced user interface, 60,000+ widgets, domain registration, shopping cart features and a blogging platform.

"We believe in providing the best possible experience for everyday people building Web sites. On top of that foundation, we have built a very scalable business model focused on generating revenue via value added services and partner relationships. Reinet shares our vision and we appreciate their strong support," said Vinny Lingham, CEO of SynthaSite.

"What sets SynthaSite apart is its vision and management team," said Frank Vivier, Chief Investment Officer of Reinet Investment Advisors. "The team's unique combination of technology, business expertise and proven track record make me confident that this company will be a big success story. Great companies are built during turbulent times."

"SynthaSite is maturing according to plan," said Johann Rupert, Executive Chairman of Reinet Investments S.C.A. "This next phase of execution will be both challenging and interesting and Reinet and SynthaSite together form a strong partnership to meet those challenges."

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Web entrepreneurs

Hello entrepreneurs... I've had a request from one of our readers to sound out SA web players.

They are looking to take full or partial stakes in some decent entry level SA web properties.

They would prefer pre or post revenue properties - i.e. sites or communities that are generating some revenue or are generating a decent level of quality traffic would definately be of consideration.

Sectors of interest include:

  • Science
  • Technology
  • Finance
  • Manufacturing
  • Mining
  • Industrial
  • Business

If you believe you have a web project that needs infrastructure, resources, investment or are looking to exit their investment please mail a motivation to marc@rival.co.za with some details of the project.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Observation

A small observation on the blog post below.

We had quite a few responses for people looking for amounts of between R250k and R1.5m and quite a lot looking for small web based ventures or to kick-start IT businesses.

Had one very good suggestion in the "energy" sector which we're now planning to take a closer look at, but other than that no real BIG projects or suggestions....

I guess it found it very odd, that there are many smaller more "functional" entrepreneurs and fewer looking for some really big and bold projects... Wonder why that is??