Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe
Photo by: Duane Daws
After announcing earlier this month that it would evaluate the potential benefits of listing its food service operations on the LSE, consumer goods group Bidvest has appointed Barclays Bank and Investec Bank to carry out preliminary investigations to determine the merits of a possible London listing, including an inward secondary listing on the JSE.
“Shareholders will be kept abreast of any further developments following the conclusion of the review by the banks and a further announcement will be made in due course,” the company said in a statement.
Bidvest CEO Brian Joffe surprised the market on September 1 by announcing the group was considering a London listing of the group’s food division, saying this business had made “remarkable” progress after scale had been added through its various acquisitions.
“It would be wrong if [a London listing] was not considered if it is a value proposition for shareholders. We expect the [listing] to be some months away, but the process has already started,” he noted at the time.
Describing Bidvest Foodservice’s general performance as “highly satisfactory”, Joffe reported a divisional trading profit jump of 28% to R3.2-billion for the year, as well as a 23.6% increase in turnover to R102.3-billion, Engineering News Online reported at the time.