VUNANI LIMITED - Voluntary Announcement Vunani acquires 50% of Verso Group

Voluntary Announcement – Vunani acquires 50% of Verso Group

VUNANI LIMITED
(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)
Registration number (1997/020641/06)
JSE code: VUN
ISIN: ZAE000163382
(“Vunani”)

VOLUNTARY ANNOUNCEMENT – VUNANI ACQUIRES 50% OF VERSO GROUP

1.    BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Vunani is pleased to announce that an agreement (“the Agreement”) has been concluded
between Vunani Capital (Pty) Ltd ("Vunani Capital”) a wholly owned subsidiary of
Vunani Limited “Vunani”), and Verso Group (Pty) Ltd (“Verso”) on Thursday, 29
September 2022 in terms of which Vunani Capital shall subscribe for enough shares
to acquire 50% of all ordinary shares in issue of Verso (“the Transaction”).

The Transaction is in line with Vunani’s strategy to expand its financial services
activities, particularly in niche markets, both in South Africa and across the
continent with a current focus on the South African Development Community countries.

2.    THE BUSINESS CONDUCTED BY VERSO

The Verso Group is a financial services group of companies rendering financial
services through various authorised financial services providers. Verso specialises
in providing a comprehensive wealth management and Section 13B retirement fund
administration service, that includes a range of technical services to retirement
funds, employee benefit consulting and advice on various employee benefit products.
Verso is also the sponsor of its own well-established umbrella fund solution, being
Verso Umbrella Retirement Pension & Provident Funds.

Besides its predominantly Western Cape based footprint, Verso also has offices
and representatives in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Gqeberha and East London.


3.    RATIONALE FOR THE TRANSACTION

The Transaction is being undertaken for the following reasons:

3.1       Verso is a complementary business to Vunani’s institutionally focused
          business.
3.2       It forms part of Vunani’s strategy of expanding and diversifying its
          financial services offering.
3.3       Verso is an established brand with a proven track record.
3.4       The Transaction has a strategic fit with existing Vunani businesses.
3.5       Verso’s executive team is highly experienced and skilled.
3.6       Verso has built an in-house technology platform to enhance its fund
          administration capability. Owning the intellectual property to this
          system offers the potential to add value added offerings to Vunani’s
          clients.
3.7       Verso can take advantage of Vunani’s financial services platform to scale
          its current business and add additional revenue streams.

4.    CLASSIFICATION OF THE TRANSACTION

Due to its size, the acquisition of Verso is not a categorised transaction in terms
of the JSE Listings Requirements and this announcement is therefore provided on
a voluntary basis for information purposes only.



Sandton
3 October 2022

Corporate Adviser to Vunani
Vunani Corporate Finance

Sponsor to Vunani
Grindrod Bank Limited

Date: 03-10-2022 08:45:00
Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited ('JSE'). 
The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of
 the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, 
indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on,
 information disseminated through SENS.