Life insurance group Clientèle aims to delist from the JSE, concludeing its two decades’ stay on the bourse — where its share is thinly traded — and contributing to a large discount to the group’s embedded value per share.
To address this, the group, worth R8.4bn on the JSE, stated last week it will go private to unlock value and boost its empowerment credentials.
Clientèle shares are “tightly held and thinly traded”, resulting in it trading at a “substantial discount” to its embedded value per share, the company stated in a regulatory filing.
The shares are subject to volatile price relocatements. The lack of liquidity and the discount in the share price create it difficult for shareholders or potential investors to acquire a meaningful number of shares, the company stated.
The lack of liquidity ”creates it difficult for all shareholders, including minority shareholders”, to sell their shares at reasonable value.
“The discount in the share price and the volatility in the share price preclude Clientèle from raising capital in the market.
“The discount in the share price and the volatility in the share price also hinder the ability of Clientèle to conclude transactions”, as the share traded price is an “unassistful reference point in any corporate action”, it stated.
The company’s shares surged 16% after the announcement. The group’s embedded value per share at conclude-December 2025 was R22.64 while its share price is R18.60.
The company is offering shareholders R19.90 per share, a 25.47% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price of R15.86 per share over the 30 business days before April 29.
Clientèle stated it is, under the circumstances, “unable to enjoy” the full capital market benefits of being listed on the JSE.
“In addition, the delisting relieves Clientèle of the additional cost of compliance with the JSE listings requirements on a continuing basis and when concluding transactions, as well as the additional management time required to be expconcludeed to comply with the same, and will accordingly allow management to focus their efforts on Clientèle’s strategic growth,” it stated.
The insurer, which was listed in 2008, has over the past two years bulked up its portfolio with the purchases of Emerald Life and 1Life.
The purchase of Emerald Life gives it access to more than 350,000 policyholders, with a sizeable book linked to South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant recipients and public servants.
Emerald, whose distribution model is based on a national network of about 2,500 internal sales representatives, has over the years built a strong presence in underserved communities through its access to Sassa-linked debit orders and loyal policyholder base.
The group also bought 1Life for nearly R2bn, creating a group with 1.5-million policies with an estimated embedded value of nearly R8bn.
1Life was owned by Telesure Investment Holdings (TIH), which owns Auto & General Insurance, Budobtain Insurance, Dialdirect Insurance and First for Women Insurance.
Clientèle settled the acquisition by issuing scrip to TIH. The group stated 1Life successfully relocated and transitioned operations to the Clientèle Campus in the first half of the financial year.
What was once a tiny company with a single distribution channel occupying a single floor in one building on the present Clientèle Campus has grown into a significant group with numerous distribution channels. The campus of the company, which has a presence in Durban and Cape Town, is bursting at the seams.
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