Following the receipt of regulatory approval, on Monday afternoon JSE-listed South African industrial conglomerate Barloworld issued a statement reporting that it had agreed that the deadline for the minimum acceptance condition for the Standby Offer be extended. The original deadline had been May 9; the new deadline is June 30, this year.

A special purpose consortium, unoriginally named Newco, is seeking to take over Barloworld. The deadline is the date by which the acceptance condition for the Standby Offer has to be satisfied or waived.

“The Independent Board believes that the extension is to the benefit of Barloworld Ordinary Shareholders because it allows them additional time to accept the Standby Offer should they wish to do so, and it avoids the Standby Offer failing on 9 May 2025 in circumstances where certain Barloworld Ordinary Shareholders may not have had an opportunity to exercise their rights to accept the Standby Offer,” affirmed the conglomerate in its statement. “Barloworld understands that certain Barloworld Ordinary Shareholders have been unable to tender their Barloworld Ordinary Shares into the Standby Offer through their CSDPs [Central Securities Depository Participants] or brokers.”

Newco has communicated that it will assess the quantity of acceptances received on or before June 30. It will then decide whether it will waive the Acceptance Condition and go ahead with the Standby Offer, or not. A spokesman for Newco stated that the consortium was confident that enough acceptances would be received to allow it to proceed with the deal. This confidence is based on recent and continuing discussions with shareholders.

On June 30, Newco and Barloworld will issue a statement of the JSE’s SENS, which will confirm if it is going to waive the Acceptance Condition and go ahead with the Standby Offer, or not do so. If the Offer goes ahead, the Longstop Date, by which all the conditions precedent to the deal must be met, is September 11, this year. (The extension of the Standby Offer has not delayed the Longstop Date.) Should there be any delay in the regulatory approval process, the Longstop Date will be automatically extended by three months.

The closing date for the Standby Offer is 12.00 Friday, September 26, this year. The results of the Standby Offer will be released on both the SENS and the ANS, on the first day of business following the closing date of the Standby Offer.