Tanua Holdings is unbundling, following its failure to raise private equity to list on the JSE Securities Exchange earlier this year.
Tanua aborted its plans to list on the JSE Securities Exchange in July, after it failed to raise the R50 million it was seeking from the market. Instead of listing, Tanua said it was pursuing several possible deals with private equity companies.
Tanua CEO Marc Ackermann said today that sections of the company are in the process of being sold, while others are being closed. Ackermann says logistics company Supergroup is in the process of acquiring Tanua Technologies and some of the smaller divisions of the business, while the Tanua corporate division is being sold to a third-party, pending the findings of a due diligence. The insurance division was sold around three months ago.
Ackermann described it as a "sad day", saying the developments were ironic in the light of the fact that Tanua was making good progress in some areas. The Tanua partnership with Standard Bank`s Bluebean.com site, for example, brought in over R8 million in turnover during the two-and-a-half months of the partnership. The partnership was ended amicably.
Ackermann says that while Tanua`s entire consumer thrust has been closed, the future of StopQ, a click-and-mortar retail outlet, is still under consideration.
Ackermann says most of Tanua`s staff members have been accommodated with the sale of the businesses, and that the directors expect to go their separate ways once the sale and closure of divisions has been wound up - probably by the end of this month.
Bluebean.com to refocus on finance
In light of the Tanua unbundling, Standard Bank`s consumer Web site, bluebean.com, is to refocus on financial services. The partnership with Tanua was severed over a year early as a result of Tanua`s difficulties.
Bluebean CEO Dave Parratt said this week that Bluebean would change its focus to financial services, such as credit card sales. However, future partnerships with online merchants are under discussion.
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