Date: 12 April 2022

The Board of Bounty Brands welcomes the Daily Maverick’s amendment to its prior article making allegations in relation to the investments made by the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) on behalf of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) in 2018.

The amendments make it clear that the principals of Bounty Brands were not involved in negotiations in relation to this funding.

We have already put on record that the funds subsequently received were deployed in accordance with the legal agreements signed between Bounty Brands, the UIF-funded investor companies and the PIC.

Any subsequent loss of value of the Bounty Brands shares held by all shareholders, including the UIF-funded investor companies, resulted from a combination of the financial collapse of Coast2Coast Capital (the then majority shareholder of Bounty Brands) in late 2018 and the poor trading conditions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

Through a recapitalisation process conducted during 2020, the company acquired new shareholders that injected additional capital into the business and returned the company to a stable financial position. All existing investors in Bounty Brands, including the UIF-funded investors via the PIC, were invited to participate in the recapitalisation process on the same terms as the new shareholders, but declined to do so.

The Board of Bounty Brands assures all of its stakeholders that it has always acted in an ethical and strictly legal manner in regards to all its dealings, and that it will continue to do so.