Food group Tiger Brands announced on Thursday it had sold four percent of its issued shares to staff in a broad-based black empowerment deal valued at R729-million.

The BEE deal includes staff employed by Tiger Brands and its subsidiaries — Tiger Food Brands, Adcock Ingram, Adcock Ingram Healthcare, Adcock Ingram Critical Care and Enterprise Foods.

The deal will be undertaken by the Tiger Brands Black Managers Trust and the Tiger Brands Thusani Trust, a trust formed for the purpose of providing benefits on a social and compassionate needs basis to the black employees of the Tiger Brands Group and their immediate families.

The company noted that its BEE strategy was to introduce black ownership in a phased manner and has set a minimum target of ten percent direct black ownership by 2010.

Shares rallied 4.42 percent to end at 116.95 rand on the JSE on Thursday.

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