Regrettably, the allocation of Sygnia Limited shares in the private placing has raised many questions and concerns among our valued clients, supporters and friends.
Regrettably, the allocation of Sygnia Limited shares in the private placing has raised many questions and concerns among our valued clients, supporters and friends.
Hence we would like to shed some light on the process we undertook to ensure fair play.
In total, R5.2 billion was received in applications against R262 million available in terms of shares being placed. This was completely unexpected and caught us by surprise. Sygnia Securities was allocated 27% of the issue in preference to any other institution in South Africa.
As per the pre-listing statement, we gave preference to certain BEE parties and to clients and staff. Those applications alone significantly exceeded R262 million. Consequently, in order to ensure that at least most people applying through Sygnia Securities received some allocation, investors who applied for larger amounts were scaled down more percentage-wise. We also did not allocate any shares to individuals who explicitly stated that they planned to sell the shares immediately and close their accounts with Sygnia Securities as they viewed this as a stagging opportunity. We prefer to reward longer-term relationships rather than allowing individuals to use Sygnia’s listing as a quick money-making opportunity.
The volume of individual applications that came through Sygnia Securities alone was staggering. As you can appreciate, this has been a very difficult process and we tried to be as impartial as possible under the circumstances. We know that we have disappointed many of our friends and supporters. Once again, we apologise.