Business brief | Brait sells chunk of Premier; Unilever trims the fat in its ice cream unit

In a slower day for corporate news, Christo Wiese-backed investment holding company Brait jumped after it sold a chunk of Premier. In international news, Unilever is spinning off its ice cream unit and cutting thousands of jobs in a new cost-savings programme.

Investment holding company Brait announced the successful placing of 15 million ordinary shares in Snowflake flour owner Premier, raising total proceeds of R900 million. Following strong demand, Brait increased the size of the placing, which remained significantly oversubscribed at the closing date, it said on Monday. The shares were issued at R60 per Placing Share, representing a 6.7% discount, and constitute approximately 11.6% of Premier's shares in issue. This will reduce its stake from 47.1% to approximately 35.4% and the free float of Premier will increase. Brait, the holding company which also owns stakes in Virgin Active and New Look in the UK, has said it intends to use the proceeds for working capital and its capital optimisation programme. Brait was up 4.48% on Tuesday, but has still lost more than 62% over the past year.