Sun International Sets Closing Date for RAH Bid

By Reuters Posted 08 August 2006 @ 05:18 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest hotel and casino company Sun International set a closing date of September 1 for its bid for Real Africa Holdings, it said on Tuesday.

It also declared its offer, which values RAH at around 1.9 billion rand, as unconditional after waiving a condition that gambling boards must approve the proposed takeover before finalising the deal.

It earlier had waived another condition that shareholders with more than 50 percent of RAH shares accept the offer.

Sun International, which runs the Sun City resort made famous by 1980s anti-apartheid anthem "I Ain't Gonna Play Sun City", made an unsolicited offer to buy the investment firm in May for 590 cents a share.

But it said last month it was cutting the offer to 513 cents per share after RAH paid an ordinary dividend of 10 cents per share and a special dividend of 67 cents.

RAH in June urged its shareholders to turn down the 5.90 rand per share bid, saying it undervalued the company.

RAH shares were unchanged at 5.18 rand by 1200 GMT, while Sun shares dipped 0.3 percent to 89.45 rand.

Real Africa's main investment is a 66.2 percent interest in Afrisun Leisure Investments Ltd., which holds minority stakes in several Sun International subsidiaries.