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Cape Town - The minister of finance was asked last year to classify British American Tobacco (BAT) as local when it listed on the JSE, but this was refused.
Fund managers are however again hopeful that BAT will indeed be classified as a local asset after Mondi, which also had a secondary (inward) listing and had been classified as a foreign asset, was recently reclassified.
According to BAT director of corporate affairs Michael Prideaux, the tobacco group would now itself approach the finance ministry to permit its listing on the JSE to be reclassified.
BAT listed on the JSE last year when Remgro and Richemont unbundled their BAT stake to their shareholders.
According to Paul Roelofse, joint head of corporate finance at Rand Merchant Bank, which acted as adviser to Remgro, the Minister of Finance was approached last year, via the Reserve Bank, to classify BAT as a domestic asset.
He reckons BAT's situation is possibly rather unique compared with other companies that have a secondary listing in SA and are treated as domestic assets.
Mondi's classification was apparently changed because it is managed from South Africa.
The other foreign companies with local classifications, such as BHP Billiton, Old Mutual, Anglo American and Liberty International, all originated in South Africa.
Fund managers have since last year been trying to get BAT classified as a domestic asset - or to have the period of grace for investments in offshore assets extended.
Since the BAT transaction the fund managers have had two years to restructure their portfolios should their foreign allowances have been exceeded.
After the unbundling, about 11% of BAT's shares are now held by South Africans.
Allan Gray portfolio manager Simon Raubenheimer says that if BAT is classified as a local asset, investors who are subject to Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act need not become forced sellers of the tobacco giant, or of their other offshore investments when the two-year period of grace runs out.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.