The empowerment deal has ignored big-name black
investors and instead focused on staff. Although the historically white health-care sector
has lagged behind other industries in
bringing in black players, the past year has seen increased activity
on this front as companies move to comply with government pressure to
broaden their ownership. The Netcare deal
will see the 10% stake sold to five new trusts: Mother &
Child, a community organization (7,5%) Healthy
Lifestyle, which will run township clinics
(5%) Patient Care (37,5%) which will be made up of Netcare
nurses and paramedics Passionate People (20%), which is comprised of
management and staff and Physician Partnerships (30%), which represents doctors. We want to give the shares to the people around
the bed, said Netcare CEO Jack Shevel.
He said that Netcare had considered bringing in
black-owned companies in the health-care
sector, but felt it was important to bring in as many people
as possible. About 45 000 people stood to
benefit from the deal. Giving workers a
stake was an important part of Netcares staff-retention strategy,
he said.
Shevel declined to provide details on the
mechanism by which the various trusts would
acquire their stakes in Netcare. Each trust has a different need. We may, for
example, do a buy-back for the doctors, and a share issue for
the nurses, he said. Currently 19% of
Netcares shares are in black hands (directly, and indirectly
held by institutions with black shareholders), of which thelions
share is held by the Public Investment Corporation, which has 12%. Shevel
said the deal that was announced yesterday would see some dilution because
of the issuing of new shares, and that it was expected to result in 15%
of the company being directly owned by blacks. The
company aimed to have 25% of its equity in black hands by 2010, he
Netcare has also set itself staff and management
equity targets, and it aims to have blacks
constituting one third of its executive board members by
2008, and 40% of its non-executive board members by 2010. We
(also) envisage the negotiation of additional public-private partnerships
at provincial and municipal levels to include black economic empowerment
partners, said Victor Litlhankanyane, Netcares head of transformation.
Netcares rival, hospital group Afrox Health (Ahealth),
finalized its 19-month efforts to bring in a
black economic empowerment partner in March. This
came about after the Competition Tribunal gave Ahealths parent, African
Oxygen, the go-ahead to sell its 69% stake in the company to a consortium.
The consortium includes Business Venture
Investments (Mvelaphanda, Brimstone and a
doctors group), Rand Merchant Bank Private Equity, Old Mutual
Life Assurance and the Industrial Development Corporation.
(Source: Business Day, April 22, 2005)
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