Jannie Mouton's Foundation makes R7 billion bid for Curro to convert it into a nonprofit

South African billionaire Jannie Mouton has made a bid to acquire private school group Curro Holdings, through his eponymously named philanthropic foundation.

The R7.2 billion purchase offer now has to go through regulatory and shareholder approval.

Founder of the PSG Group, Mouton's aim is to turn Curro into a public benefit organisation (PBO) supporting education in the country.

In essence, Mouton says, this would be a R7.2 billion donation to the South African public 

"The schools will have no shareholder after this, as public benefit organisations don't have shareholders, and we will run it to make South Africa a better country through educating more children in a quality way."

Jannie Mouton, Deputy Chair - Jannie Mouton Foundation

As a public benefit organisation, a future Curro would invest any surplus it makes into education - for instance into bursaries, improving existing school infrastructure or building new schools.

Curro shares jumped 50% on the news on Wednesday morning, indicating that the deal will succeed.

"Shareholders are getting a 60% premium so hopefully they are very happy with this and vote in favour of the transaction, or donation actually."

Jannie Mouton, Deputy Chair - Jannie Mouton Foundation

The Money Show also spoke to Curro CEO Cobus Loubser, who commented that the Jannie Mouton Foundation appears be an organisation very much aligned with their own mission, which is to extend quality education to many more learners.

"I think that practically it MAY enable us to accelerate some of the things we dream about and some of the ideals that we have for South Africa's learners, so from that perspective it could be quite a transformative transaction."

Cobus Loubser, CEO - Curro Holdings

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the conversation with Jannie Mouton; the interview clip of Loubser appears below: