The Switch to Sage

In October 1981 the issued share capital in Retco was reduced from 69 million shares to less than six million following a deal in which Retco’s assets were transferred to the Sage group’s newly formed CBD Property Fund. (Flowchart C). The deal was structured as follows: Fifteen of the thirty-one properties held by subsidiaries of Retco, plus R10 million cash, would be transferred to the newly formed CBD Property Fund, a unit trust fund that would specialise in CBD properties. Shareholders of Retco would receive units in the new fund in exchange for their shares, or cash if they preferred. SA Breweries would sell its 31% share to ‘a consortium headed by Sage Holdings Ltd’.

Flowchart C

Transfer of Retco properties to the CBD Property Fund in 1981.

The circular to shareholders detailing this deal provides the first list of Retco’s properties and it’s evident from this list that Retco held what had been Bernard and Sam Glazer’s property portfolio (Flowchart B and spreadsheet). The return at this stage of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co and Kessel Feinstein as auditors would seem to indicate that Glazer was somewhere in the background.

Chart E

Group structure – Sage Property Trust Managers (SPTM) Ltd