PIC fights to recover R411 million BEE payout for Lanseria

Stephen Grootes speaks to Carol Paton, Editor-at-large at Fin24, about the legal battle as the PIC seeks to reclaim a R400 million BEE payment for Lanseria. 

Listen to the interview in the audio player below. 

The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is heading to court claw back R411 million that it paid to the BEE shareholder at Lanseria airport.

The dispute arises from the 2017 deal where the PIC lent R333 million to Acapulco to purchase a 25% stake in Lanseria Airport.

PIC CEO Patrick Dlamini says the R411 million payout was based on an “unacceptable” overvaluation of Lanseria Holdings by around 400%.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Carol Paton, Editor-at-large at Fin24 says this deal was doomed from the get-go.

"Not only did it not put any money in, it still owned the PIC R660 million, when it got the R400 million. In other words, what happened was the PIC decided that the Lanseria airport, Acapulco's 25% stake was worth R1 billion," says Paton.

"It is astonishing, and even along the way, the airport as an asset didn't perform very well because we had Covid. And it's still flying at 54% of it's pre-Covid capacity. So it's not doing well," added Paton.

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.