Minorities will vote on the offer on September 30, amid rumblings of discontent on the size of the offer.

Nedcor holding 85% of the investment bank wants to buy out minority shareholders to restructure the group in the wake of the takeover of BoE.

The group offered NIB shareholders one Nedcor share for every 33 NIB shares on August 13. On that date, the offer amounted to about 348c, based on an NIB share price of 357c a share.

Since then, however, both NIB's and Nedcor's share prices have dropped. On Friday, NIB's shares were at 295c, while Nedcor's shares were trading at R100,02.

This means the offer to minorities had fallen to just about 300c at the weekend, a marked decrease on the 348c about two weeks ago.

This will irk some shareholders, who had already felt the original 348c was too low, given the fact NIB was listed at 430c.

Sanlam, which holds between 20% to 25% of the minority shares, was one party that made its objections clear.

Sanlam CE Leon Vermaak said the group has not yet taken a decision on how it will vote at the September 30 meeting. Sanlam met with Nedcor management last week to discuss the offer and both parties will meet again this week to get the banking group's 'explanation' of their offer.

Johan van der Merwe, CEO of Sanlam Investment Management, said because it was a share-for-share offer, the cash price was not as important as it would be were it just a cash offer.

The other major shareholder, Old Mutual, has not yet commented.

Nedcor's directors will be quick to point out that even a 300c price would exceed the 261c at which NIB was trading before the announcement in April of the minority buyout plan.

Some minorities, keen on a stake in an investment bank but not necessarily the larger bank, might look to sell the Nedcor shares once the buyout has been finalised. For the buyout to be approved, more than 75% of the minorities must approve the sale.

If this happens as smoothly as Nedcor would like, the bank says NIB's listing on the JSE Securities Exchange SA will be terminated from October 22.

Business Day