AltX-listed Alert Steel on Tuesday reported that Cannistraro Investments has bought Nedbank- and Capital Africa Steel- (CAS-) owned shares in the struggling steel retailer.
Cannistraro agreed to buy a 47.5% stake in Alert Steel from CAS for a total consideration of R13.5-million, comprising R6-million for 24.7-million shares and R7.5-million to procure the release of CAS from a bank guarantee.
The total purchase price equated to 54.58c a share.
Cannistraro also entered into an agreement with Nedbank to acquire 10.2-million shares in Alert Steel at 9.72c a share for an aggregate purchase price of R1-million.
The Nedbank sale shares represented 19.78% of the currently issued shares in Alert Steel.
Both transactions were subject to conditions precedent, including approval by the competition authorities.
Meanwhile, the company expected to narrow its losses for the year ended December.
Alert Steel expected an improvement in its loss a share of between 62% and 69%, to a loss of between 0.6c and 0.8c a share for the year under review, compared with the loss a share of 2c reported in December 2011.
The group said headline losses a share would record a 67% to 73% improvement, to a loss of between 0.5c to 0.7c a share during the 12-month period in 2012. This was compared with the headline losses of 2c a share reported in the prior year.
Taking into account a share increase of 1.1-billion and the consolidation of 5.2-billion shares on the basis of one share for every one hundred shares held, the company reported narrowing its losses 65% to 72%, recording between 69.1c and 56.5c a share, from the loss a share of 199.6c in the year to December 2011.
Headline loss per share had improved by between 74% and 78% to a loss of between 67.8c to 55.5c a share during the 2012 financial year, compared with the loss of 256.6c a share reported in December 2011.
Alert Steel would release its financial results for the year ended December 2012 by the end of March.