Savanna Beef Processors Ltd (SBPL) has launched its fourth private placement, offering the remaining N$6.5 million of its share capital to producers.
This final phase aims to increase producer ownership in the company from 96.8% to 100%.
Savanna Chairperson, Meiki Schneider, said shares will be sold in batches of N$4,000 for each preferential slaughter cattle.
He encouraged producers to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase additional shares.
“These shares are to be sold in batches of N$4,000 for each preferential slaughter of cattle. We encourage you to take up this opportunity to buy additional shares, as preferential slaughter rights will have a dominant influence on quota allocations. Over the counter trading of shares will be implemented soon,” he said.
The company has made substantial progress over the past year, securing funding of approximately N$420 million (excluding VAT) for the construction and commissioning of the beef processing plant.
The project is financed in part by a construction loan, a long-term loan of N$150 million from an industrial development corporation.
Additionally, N$85 million of the funding comes from a finance lease for the cooling facilities, while the remaining financing comes from a combination of producer share capital and investments by two major private equity firms.
Schneider further explained that Savanna Beef has also established a subsidiary, Savanna Beef Operations (Pty) Ltd (SBO), to manage the day-to-day operations of the plant.
SBO has secured preferential slaughter rights and entered into a management agreement with the Beef Value Chain Forum.
“SBO is now the operating company, with all agreements reached with SBPL now transferred to SBO. This includes preferential slaughter rights as well as the management agreement with the Beef Value Chain Forum (amongst others to appoint the CEO, COO and CFO),” he said.
The project has garnered widespread support from the Namibian farming community and aims to retain 50,000 more weaners in the country, increase local value addition, and create more than 200 jobs.
