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In a busy day for corporate news on Tuesday, Sasol slumped amid a generally tough day for miners and Capitec leapt. Meanwhile, healthcare company Ascendis looks likely to be the JSE's next departure after shareholders gave their approval. In international news, Chinese bubble-tea chain Baicha Baidao had the worst debut for a large company in Hong Kong for almost a decade.
Just over 87% of shareholders of Ascendis Health voted on Tuesday in favour of delisting the company from the JSE. Ascendis was founded in 2008 and listed in 2013, but has spent years trying to get on top of an unsustainable debt pile racked up through an offshore acquisition spree that had mixed results. It was also subject to multiple board battles and struggles to get asset sales over the line. Now valued at just under R500 million on the JSE, the group was subject to a takeover offer in November by a consortium headed by current CEO Carl Neethling, who had previously made clear delisting was the best option for a now much smaller group. Ascendis operates within the healthcare sector, focusing on supplying health and wellness products, such as Solal and Junglevites, as well as the distribution of medical devices. In a brief meeting on Tuesday morning, no questions were asked by shareholders. The delisting process itself, expected to take place later in May, could be delayed by complaints laid at the Takeover Regulation Panel. The TRP also announced last week that it had appointed an investigator following a series of complaints, though this was welcomed by Ascendis as a fair way of bringing closure to a process that could otherwise drag on. Ascendis has said the move follows engagement with the regulator as it looked for finality in a transaction delayed by the "continual drip-feeding" of complaints.
