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The Minister of Trade and Industry Dr. Rod Davies announced, in the Government Gazette of 9 June 2017 (“Publication Date”), that all Major B-BBEE Transactions must be registered with the B-BBEE Commission.

The Chief Master’s Directive issued in March 2017, (the “Directive”), announced new changes to be implemented with respect to the administration of all trusts. The Directive demands the appointment of an independent trustee where the trust is registered for the first time with the Master’s Office and it emerges from the trust deed that the trust is a “family business trust”. This requirement results from the judgment in Land and Agricultural Bank of South Africa v Parker and Others, where the court determined that the Master must restrict or prevent the abuse of trusts.

In the case of Roazar CC v The Falls Supermarket CC 2017, Falls Supermarket (hereinafter ‘‘Falls’’) leased a premises from Roazar Close Corporation (hereinafter ‘‘Roazar’’). Apart from the main lease agreement, two other agreements between the parties were relevant, in terms whereof additional monies were agreed to be paid in cash by Falls to the individual members of Roazar. So-called off-the-record payments or “kickbacks”.

The Caveat Subscriptor is a common law principle that binds parties to an agreement reduced to writing and signed by the parties, irrespective of their true intentions, understanding or interpretation of the written agreement.

Imerys South Africa (Pty) Ltd. and Andalusite Resources (Pty) Ltd. merger:

The Turquand Rule (the “Rule”) allows a third party dealing with a company in good faith to presume the authority of a person acting on behalf of a company. The common law based Rule is recognised by our courts and is partially entrenched in the Companies Act (the “Act”).

The Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice (“BEE Codes”) published in 2013, introduced three priority elements, each with a sub-minimum requirement to be attained by measured entities. If not attained in any one of the priority elements, the measured entity’s BEE contribution is reduced with one level (“Discounting Penalty”). The priority elements are Ownership; Skills Development; and Enterprise and Supplier Development.

Often a landowner requires improvements to be made to his property, however, does not have the skill or capital to effect such improvements. The lessor can then agree with a lessee to effect improvements to the leased premises, which improvements made to the leased premises becomes the property of the lessor as landowner.

In the case of CIR v Nico, the court found that the trading stock, which formed part of the purchase price when the owner sold his business as going concern, would form part of gross income. This case highlighted the necessity for the asking price of a business sold as a going concern, not to be reflected as a lump sum. The selling price must be allocated to various items such as fixed assets, goodwill, stock and accounts receivable. This article focusses on the valuation of slow-moving and obsolete stock when selling a business as going concern.

The issue whether to quote prices with value added tax (‘‘VAT’’) included or excluded recently came up in the matter of Security Outfitters Safety Gear/L Munian/2016-4420F, a ruling handed down by the Directorate of the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA Directorate) on 18 November 2016 (the ‘‘Ruling’’).

When a company (the “Acquirer”) plans to purchase another company (the “Target”), it is important to research the integrity of the counterparty. A proper legal, operational and financial due diligence will assist the Acquirer to asses risks relating to the Target.

Minority shareholders had limited protection under the Companies Act, 61 of 1973 (“the 1973 Act”). Only a member, being a minority shareholder, could approach a court in cases of oppressive or unfair prejudicial conduct. When approaching a court for relief under the 1973 Act, the minority shareholder had to show that the decisions taken by the board or majority shareholders were unfairly prejudicial, unjust or inequitable towards the minority shareholder.