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lAST-MINUTE RUSH TO GRAB sASOL SHARES

CHOCK-A-BLOCK: Busy day at Polokwane Post Office as people queue for piece of the pie with Sasol Investors Shares. Some people had been waiting since 9am for assistance to submit thier forms. Pic. Nyeleti Machovani. 09/07/2008. © Unknown
CHOCK-A-BLOCK: Busy day at Polokwane Post Office as people queue for piece of the pie with Sasol Investors Shares. Some people had been waiting since 9am for assistance to submit thier forms. Pic. Nyeleti Machovani. 09/07/2008. © Unknown

Xolile Bhengu

Xolile Bhengu

Post offices around the country were swamped yesterday with people hoping to take advantage of Sasol's public invitation to buy shares on the last day.

Sasol last week extended the deadline for black investors to buy its shares through the Inzalo black economic empowerment scheme by an extra four days - to accommodate last-minute share purchases.

The share offering, estimated to be worth R7,8 billion, is part of Sasol's R26billion broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) transactions.

Sasol said it aimed to attract 200 000 shareholders through the empowerment offering.

Investors in the deal will acquire ownership of 10 percent of Sasol.

The Inzalo shares were sold at R366 a share. Sasol's share price gained 2,85 percent to R434,05 yesterday.

Post Office spokesman Lungile Lose said yesterday morning some branches had experienced technical glitches because of the large volumes of transactions, but the company's IT team had resolved the issues by mid-day.

Lose said marshals were on hand to assist applicants and anyone who had joined the queue before 7pm would be helped.

Sasol group communications manager Jacqui O'Sullivan said the company would announce the final official figures of investors next week.

O'Sullivan said Sasol was confident that it would meet its expectations and even exceed them.

Grant Lowton, a 23-year-old Johannesburg investor, waited two hours in a Post Office queue yesterday.

He said: "We are all idiots for leaving it for the last day. I only made the decision to buy the shares today.

"I was a bit sceptical at first but when a colleague told me I was probably the last non-white in the country who had not bought shares I came straight here."

Bongiwe Sibisi, 33, had been waiting for more than an hour and was not even close to the entrance.

"I missed out on the MTN Asonge share scheme last year, so there was no way that I was going to miss this offering," she said.

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