Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions: Acquisition of Loan Book

We advised Sasfin in relation to its acquisition of the entire loan book of Absa Technology Finance Solutions Proprietary Limited (a subsidiary of Absa Bank Limited, a company listed on the JSE (“ATFS”)) and ATFS’ information technology systems related to the management of the loan book, as well as taking over the staff of ATFS. The loan book comprises loans and rental contracts including non-performing loans, loans eligible for securitisation and loans not eligible for securitisation.

This transaction was to be funded by securitising the loans in the loan book which were eligible for securitisation, and consequently involved complex pricing mechanics given the nature of the loans comprising the loan book and the eligibility (or non-eligibility) thereof for securitisation. The transaction also involved extensive negotiations, intellectual property, competition and other regulatory and compliance issues given that both entities were subsidiaries of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.