Danish Billionaire Ordered to Cede Shares in Okavango Lodges to Citizens

The Competition and Consumer Authority (CAA) has directed a consortium that includes Denmark’s wealthiest man, Anders Holch Povlsen, to cede 30 percent of his shares to citizen operators following the group’s successful acquisition of Abu Camp in the Okavango Delta. Abu Camp is partly owned by the late Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and his family. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="1" ] The decision to direct the new owners of Abu Camp to cede 30 percent of their shares to local operators came after the Authority earlier on “received a merger notification for the proposed acquisition of 100 percent of the total issued share capital in Olifanten S.á.r.l (Olifanten) together with its Botswana subsidiary Abu Private Reserve (Proprietary) Limited (Abu) by Saphire Holdings Limited (Saphire). The acquiring enterprise, Saphire, is an investment holding company incorporated in accordance with the Laws of the Republic of Mauritius. Saphire is controlled equally by Pawling Holdings Limited (based in Mauritius) and Wildland International Limited (registered in the United Kingdom). The target enterprise, Olifanten, is a private liability company incorporated in accordance with the Laws of Luxembourg. Olifanten is wholly owned by Juno Properties S.á.r.l, a 100 percent subsidiary of Old World Properties LLC, which is in turn ultimately controlled by Jo Lynn Allen, Executor of the Estate of Paul G. Allen. The entities are based in Seattle Washington, USA. Olifanten is an investment holding company controlling Abu (a Botswana based company). Abu operates within the tourism and hospitality industries and it operates two safari lodges outside Maun. The directors of Saphire are André Pottas (South African), Clive Robert Britton, Naiken Veerasamy, Sawkut Oomarally Bundhoo (all Mauritians) and Lise Kaae (Danish). Reports indicate that Lise Kaai is representative of Danish business fashion mogul Anders Holch Povlsen. Kaae is the CEO of Povlsen’s investment fund, Heartland, the Povlsen family holding company that has invested in fashion clothing. In a detailed report, the Competition and Consumer Authority states that Abu Camp is active in the tourism and hospitality industries and operates two safari lodges in the NG26 private concession bordering Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta. These safari lodges provide bed nights sold on an all-inclusive basis. The Competition and Consumer Authority states that in the assessment of substantial lessening of competition, the transaction under assessment entails an acquisition of shares by a new entrant, who, although has two subsidiaries in Botswana, has never traded in Botswana before. “The assessment of the proposed merger revealed public interest concerns centred on the disposal of shares not being publicly advertised to accommodate citizens/citizen-owned companies, consequently limiting the participation of citizens in the proposed sale,” the Authority said. In an effort to address the concerns, the Authority identified a lack of coherence between Botswana’s tourism policy and the Tourism Act in relation to how these two pieces of legislation advocate for citizen empowerment in regulating the tourism industry. “According to the Tourism Act, the relevant market is not reserved for citizens while the tourism policy advocates for considerations of citizens in the issuing or acquirement of tourism land without necessarily drawing a distinction between markets reserved for citizens and those that are not,” the Authority said. This conflict, the Authority noted, leads to a difference in interpretation of the two pieces of legislation and ultimately had a bearing on the classification of tourism markets. Further to ascertaining the role of citizens in the tourism industry, licensing data relating to business operations in the tourism sector was assessed. “The data revealed citizens dominate all sub-sectors of the tourism industry nationwide, including those that are not reserved for citizens,” the Authority said. Taking the public interest concerns raised into account, as well as the commitments made by the merging parties and pursuant to the provisions of section 53 of the Act, the Authority has approved the proposed acquisition of 100 percent of the total issued share capital in Olifanten S.á.r.l together with its Botswana subsidiary Abu Private Reserve (Pty) Ltd by Saphire Holdings Limited, subject to the following conditions: To enhance Citizen Empowerment by disposal in (aggregate) of a minimum of 30 percent of the shares in Abu Private Reserve (Pty) Ltd (as the concession operator) to citizens (including, without limitation, individuals, citizen companies, consortia, joint ventures and/or community trusts) within 12 months from the implementation date. “The expectation is that the disposal would be publicly advertised for transparency and fairness reasons; The Merged Enterprise shall inform the Authority of the date of implementation within 90 business days from the Approval date; There shall be no merger specific retrenchments or redundancies,” the Authority said in its report. The Competition and Consumer Authority also directed that the merged enterprises shall, for a period of three years from the implementation date, submit to the Authority a report on each anniversary of the implementation date detailing its compliance with the conditions of approval and demonstrate its contribution to citizen empowerment, employment, community and conservation. [/ihc-hide-content][ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="1" ][/ihc-hide-content]

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Danish Billionaire Ordered to Cede Shares in Okavango Lodges to Citizens

Report unveils more highly affluent Westerners embedded in Botswana’s tourism sector, including Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen

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