Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo Investment Holdings intends buying out minority shareholders in the controversial Ayo Technology Solutions and delisting the business from the JSE.
Ayo, which has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons for years – including numerous censures from the JSE for failing to comply with listing requirements – received a controversial multibillion-rand investment from the Public Investment Corp (PIC), the entity that makes investments on behalf of civil servants using their pension contributions, ahead of its 2017 listing.
The company has faced multiple regulatory sanctions over the years, including fines, censures and trading suspensions, mainly due to financial misstatements and governance failures.
In October 2024, Ayo was suspended from trading on the JSE due to its failure to publish annual financial statements on time. The suspension was further compounded by the unexpected resignation of one of its joint external auditors and incomplete audit processes. These issues raised serious concerns about the company’s financial transparency and corporate governance.
Soon, however, any public visibility into the company’s finances may also be a thing of the past should Sekunjalo be successful in its plan to take it private.
Sekunjalo, which is controlled by Survé and which also controls newspaper group Independent, said it will offer Ayo shareholders 52c/share for their shares for a total consideration of R80.8-million. That, however, a tiny fraction of the value of the shares when they listed, with Ayo seeing massive destruction in shareholder value over the past eight years. The PIC had controversially invested R4.3-billion in the business for a 29% stake through a private placement in 2017, but ended up losing most of this money in the investment.
‘Negative media’
The PIC has since alleged that the investment was made based on misleading information and irregular process, leading to legal action to recover the funds. In March 2023, the parties reached an agreement, with Ayo agreeing to repay a small portion of the money.
Under JSE rules, Sekunjalo must now appoint an independent expert to determine if the offer it’s making to Ayo’s minorities is fair. It has also constituted an independent board to assess the offer. Ayo’s delisting must be approved by at least 75% of Ayo shareholders. The offer can be taken in the form of cash, it said.
Sekunjalo on Friday claimed that one of the main reasons for the poor performance of Ayo’s share price and its mounting net losses were the result of “recurrent negative media reportage”. It is “highly unlikely that the value destroyed through these campaigns will be reversed in the near future”, it said.
It said the decision to delist was taken because:
- The “likely prospect” of no transactional banking services should litigation against the banks, which have refused to provide banking facilities, not be successful;
- Other ongoing litigation including a liquidation application;
- The high costs of maintaining a listing; and
- Reputational issues stemming from a series of “negative and erroneous media articles”.
“Sekunjalo is of the view that if Ayo is given time away from public scepticism, the intrinsic value of the Ayo group can be increased over time for all shareholders,” Sekunjalo said. “Ayo shares are highly illiquid, and it will be difficult for AYO shareholders to dispose of their shareholding in the open market.”
Read: Tricky start to 2024 for Ayo and Iqbal Survé
“The intention for the delisting is not to expropriate shares from minority shareholders but rather to increase the intrinsic value of Ayo for all shareholders. With this in mind, Sekunjalo will provide shareholders with an election to remain in the unlisted environment, with the intention of increasing value over time, or receive a cash consideration on delisting.” — (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media
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