{"id":845025,"date":"2025-11-28T14:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=845025"},"modified":"2025-11-28T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:09:10","slug":"south-african-billionaires-foundation-gets-approval-to-buy-private-school-giant-for-r7-2-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/845025\/south-african-billionaires-foundation-gets-approval-to-buy-private-school-giant-for-r7-2-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"South African billionaire&#8217;s foundation gets approval to buy private school giant for R7.2 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jannie Mouton\u2019s Foundation has received approval from the Competition Commission to acquire Curro, the nation\u2019s largest private school group.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mouton is one of the nation\u2019s wealthiest individuals and founded the PSG group, which has gone on to support several successful businesses, including Capitec, PSG Financial Services, and Curro.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Curro is South Africa\u2019s largest independent school network, with over 70,000 students across the nation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Curro\u2019s services include digital learning, various curricula tailored for specific students, as well as pre-school, primary, and secondary school offerings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Jannie Mouton Foundation, a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO), now plans to acquire Curro in a deal worth R7.2 billion. The trust already owns around 3.0% of Curro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mouton established the foundation in 2004 as a means to further invest in the nation\u2019s education, having already donated a significant portion of his wealth to the foundation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The foundation wants to position Curro as an ever-evolving independent education institution that uses funds to build more schools, grow facilities and offer bursaries.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The transaction would enable Curro to continue growing independently, with the current management team on board. Curro will also become a registered PBO and delist from the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As per the offer, the foundation will provide existing shareholders with a minor cash consideration, as well as shares in Capitec and PSG Financial Services. The roughly R13 per share offer works out to:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A cash Consideration of R0.85837 per Scheme Share (which will comprise approximately 6.6% of the Scheme Consideration)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Capitec Shares in the ratio of 0.00284 Capitec Shares per Scheme Share (which will comprise approximately 79.7% of the Scheme Consideration);&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PSG Financial Services Shares in the ratio of 0.07617 PSG Financial Services Shares per Scheme Share (which will comprise approximately 13.7% of the Scheme Consideration).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>After delisting, Curro\u2019s growth will be accelerated via reinvestment of its potential returns\/surplus.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The foundation said that this will enable Curro to grow its offerings faster via new builds, expansions, the acquisition of schools and innovation in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gets the green light&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-836075\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Durbanville-Curro-scaled-e1756276408105.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The Competition Commission has now recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the proposed transaction where the trust intends to acquire Curro.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission said that the transaction is unlikely to lessen or prevent competition in any market.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission said that the Tribunal should approve the proposed transaction, subject to undertakings that will make a substantial positive contribution to education.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes providing greater access to historically disadvantaged persons (HDPs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Curro said that it will provide a further update to shareholders during the course of next week regarding the final undertakings, which are still subject to acceptance by the offeror.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company will also explain the timing of the Tribunal\u2019s approval process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal has seen Curro\u2019s share price rise dramatically, with investors drawn to the Capitec shares on offer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the last six months, Capitec and PSG Financial Services have both seen their share prices rise by around 25%.  <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-69.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"697\" height=\"215\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-69.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-845035\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-69.png 697w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image-69-300x93.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 697px) 100vw, 697px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Curro Share Price<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sale of Curro to the Jannie Mouton Foundation has received the go-ahead from the Competition Commission. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":818319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[1798,8043,4671],"class_list":["post-845025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-capitec","tag-curro","tag-psg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845025"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":845039,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845025\/revisions\/845039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}