Johann Rupert-linked Remgro plans to sell stake in TotalEnergies South Africa

Remgro Limited, a South African investment holding led by billionaire Johann Rupert, has announced plans to sell its stake in TotalEnergies South Africa, an operating subsidiary of TotalEnergies SE, a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company.

One of the leading investment holding companies in not only South Africa, but all of Africa as a whole, Remgro maintains a diverse portfolio of investments in top-quality and high-performing firms, including a 25-percent stake in TotalEnergies South Africa.

According to the group’s 2021 financial statement, its stake in TotalEnergies South Africa, which owns refining operations and gasoline stations in South Africa, has a book value of R2.5 billion ($140 million).

The planned divestment in TotalEnergies South Africa is consistent with Remgro’s strategy of rotating its investment portfolio, as demonstrated recently by the sale of Grindrod Bank and Grindrod Financial Holdings for R1.5 billion ($97 million).

Remgro has also completed the sale of approximately a 30-percent stake in South Africa’s largest wine and spirits producer, Distell Group, to Dutch multinational brewing company Heineken N.V.

The move follows the completion of an implementation agreement by Heineken to acquire Distell’s operations for €2.2 billion ($2.52 billion) through Sunside Acquisitions Proprietary Limited, a newly incorporated unlisted subsidiary of Heineken International in South Africa.

With the sale of Total Energies South Africa underway and bids expected to be submitted in the coming weeks, Remgro is on the verge of completing a strategic takeover of multinational private hospital group Mediclinic International through a consortium of investors led by Manta Bidco Limited and MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.

Rupert’s Remgro owns 44.6 percent of the group, which operates the most hospitals in South Africa. Its takeover bid values Mediclinic’s entire issued and to-be-issued ordinary share capital at approximately £3.7 billion ($4.48 billion), with an implied enterprise value of approximately £6.1 billion ($7.4 billion).