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Cape Town - Spur Corporation [JSE:SUR] announced in a Sens statement on Tuesday that its executive chair and founder Allen Ambor has sold his 3 099 176 ordinary shares in the company at R32.50 for a total of R100.723m.
This comprises all the shares he held in Spur, CEO Pierre van Tonder told Fin24.
Ambor opened the first Spur Steak Ranch in 1967 and from there it grew to the giant franchise company of today.
Van Tonder told Fin24 that Ambor is simply diversifying his portfolio.
"He is in his mid-seventies and wants to spread his risk. At the end of the day he is not leaving Spur or going anywhere. It is a financial and commercial transaction, not a human capital transaction," said Van Tonder.
"If you look at our current share price, he got a very good price on the sale of his shares and got a small premium on them. It shows there is still value in Spur shares and at the end of the day the Spur scheme is still very important for us going forward. The sale of his shares has no bearing on Spur."
READ: Spur sales up to R7bn
According to the same Sens statement, non-executive director Keith Madders sold 332 650 of his shares in Spur on Monday. It was for R33 per share and a total price of R10 977 450.
In September last year Spur Corporation announced that in the year to June 2016 total restaurant sales across its local and international operations grew by 12.9% to R6.97bn. The group’s headline earnings increased by 15.9% to R164m with headline earnings per share growing by 11.9% to 170.9 cents.
Following the opening of 74 new outlets locally in the past year, the group’s worldwide restaurant base increased to 575 during the financial year.
Panarottis Pizza Pasta grew restaurant sales by 18%, Spur Steak Ranches by 6.2%, John Dory’s by 17.7% and The Hussar Grill by 51.8%.
By late afternoon trade Spur shares were up 0.88% at R31.98 per share.
