British soft drink maker SABMiller Plc. has announced it will sell a .09 billion stake in South African hotel-casino operator Tsogo Sun Holdings.
“Gaming and hotels are not core to our operations,” according to SABMiller CEO Alan Clark, “and we have concluded that the time is right for us to exit our investment.”
SABMiller owns 39.6 percent of the Johannesburg-based company. Reuters reports that it will divest the stake in a two-stage transaction involving a sale to institutional investors and a buyback of shares by Tsogo Sun.
“We support Tsogo Sun in buying back the shares,” said Johnny Copelyn, CEO of the casino operator’s biggest shareholder Hosken Consolidated Investments Ltd., which owns 47 percent of the company. “It’s a good company. The industry has a good future.”
