The financial services giant also has a community share scheme and an employee share scheme, and is issuing just more than 205 million shares – most of which will go to black South Africans. The bump-up in the company’s BEE ownership score is about 4%, and the implementation of Bula Tsela will take it to just under 33% black ownership.
Taskeen Ismail, head of corporate finance at Old Mutual, says applicants will have to decide on their own which offer they want to take up – either the R2,000 upfront or R1,000 paid over 12 months. Ismail says there will be a weighting in favour of black women. A number of queries on the morning the offer opened were from parents and grandparents wanting to invest on behalf of their minor children and grandchildren. To do this, you will need an unabridged birth certificate of the minor and documentation to prove that both the minor and one parent are either black, coloured or Indian.
So, the retail scheme wants to buy about 63 million Old Mutual shares at R800-million. R120-million comes from participants, R120-million comes from Old Mutual itself as a donation or contribution, and the remaining R560-million is preference share funding from Old Mutual, which will have to be paid back – which is why there is a lock-in period.“The only reason you would go for the R1,000 offer is if you don’t have enough money to put down upfront.