Barloworld Ltd.'s car-rental business, which will be carved out and listed in Johannesburg next month, will have a valuation of about 4.5 billion rand ($260 million), the unit's chief executive officer said.
Barloworld has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to advise the diversified South African industrial group on the spinoff and listing of Zeda Ltd., set for Dec. 13, according to stock exchange filings Monday. The business houses the Avis and Budget rental brands, with Barloworld shareholders receiving one Zeda share for each Barloworld share they own.
Zeda CEO Ramasela Ganda, who gave the estimated valuation in a separate interview, said the company aimed to tap the growing needs of online retailers such as Naspers Ltd.'s Takealot. The potential arrival of players like Amazon.com Inc. would give this business further impetus, she said.
"People and companies don't need to own their own cars or manage their own fleets anymore," Ganda said in Johannesburg. "This is where we see the market shift and further growth, with companies like Amazon coming, and Takealot already here, they need fleets to transport and deliver their goods -- that is where we fit in."
The spinoff is a rare boost for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, which has been struggling to attract listings in recent years. Zeda would be one of two debuts before the year is out, with Brait SE, an investment group, planning an initial public offering of its consumer-goods division Premier Group.
Listing Zeda will boost management's efforts to expand in areas including car rental and leasing, as well as commercial fleet rentals and other services such as maintenance contracts, said Ganda. The company manages an average fleet of some 57,000 vehicles, generating about 8 billion rand in annual revenue, she said.
Barloworld has said it will continue to focus on its main business of renting industrial equipment to mining and consumer-goods companies.
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