Media24, South Africa's leading publisher of magazines, books, newspapers and digital products, introduced a black empowerment share offer in 2006 called Welkom Yizani.
This was to be the biggest share offer in print media history and offered eligible black people and groups an indirect interest of 15% in Media24 Holdings.
The logistics of such a large operation, not to mention the regulatory and compliance requirements, were no mean feat. Media24 called in the help of FirstCoast Technologies to:
- Manage the anticipated high volume of applications
- Capture the applications and associated supporting documentation electronically - accurately and quickly
- Create a searchable and exportable document management system for the applications
- Extract relevant information such as applicant reference numbers and purchase amount, in a way that was compatible with the financial institution's systems.
The offer was three times subscribed with over 100,000 applications received for 14,6 million Welkom Yizani ordinary shares.
In order to meet Media24's needs, FirstCoast recommended Inotec Scamax M06 scanners, which can scan up to 150 pages per minute; OpenText Alchemy, a document management system; and the ABBYY FormReader as the ideal products to handle this complex task.
A complex process demanding legal compliance
Applicants submitted a specially designed application form which had a unique number and a matching deposit slip. These were processed by the financial institution who was managing the scheme, and each application was referenced with the unique number on the share scheme's bank account.
FICA (the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001) required that every application was accompanied by certain supporting documentation - including the applicant's identity document and proof of address. These materials were scanned and separated into various batches, barcoded, tagged with the unique share scheme reference number and the amount purchased recorded.
All data extracted from the application forms was loaded according to value, validated against the bank account and checked against the application form. The applicant was then entered onto the share register and issued with a share certificate.
Curveballs and a simple solution
Because the share scheme was so massively and unexpectedly over-subscribed, the volume of applications received was hugely larger than expected - but had to be processed within the same time frame. FormReader in particular turned what was a mammoth task into a simple, quick process. The project threw up several curveballs but FirstCoast, through a lot of hard work and a 'can do' attitude, ensured that their part in the process was implemented extremely efficiently.
Technical information:
The products that FirstCoast used to make Media24's share issue a success were:
- ABBYY FormReader: Scanning and recognition software that is ideal for processing medium and large document volumes, and capturing data from various documents.
- Inotec Scamax M06 150 page scanners: For fast, high quality scanning.
- OpenText Alchemy: For creating a digital archive and searchable materials.
More information
For more information or to find out how FirstCoast can help your company with its share issue scheme or to streamline your financial compliance processes, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it on +27 (0) 861 313 300.
Contact First Coast Technologies to see what we could do for you.
