Bambanani, Melville’s ‘mommy brand’ restaurant, goes public – Caryn Cohen
Family-focused restaurant, Bambanani, has entertained children and their parents in Melville, Johannesburg for the past 14 years. The owner, Caryn Cohen, is now ready to take her concept of pairing sophisticated dining with a safe space for children elsewhere and to raise money, she has partnered with Altvest to look for co-investors via the Cape Town Stock Exchange. Cohen told BizNews about her ambitious plans to expand in the country and overseas. She says her biggest backers are her clientele and is looking forward to the company being run by savvy women who create opportunities for themselves. Akshay Karan from Altvest said the company became involved because they loved the story and there has been "incredible interest" so far. The company is listing on the Cape Town Stock Exchange on 12 December. – Linda van Tilburg
A longstanding Johannesburg institution ready to expand
So, I opened it 14 years ago when I had small children and there was just nowhere to take them, so I just saw a need in the market. I'm definitely an entrepreneur and see gaps in markets. It was easy for me to see the gap, but I had another business that I needed quite a bit of time to get my head around, getting the model right and understanding the restaurant industry, which took me a while, but I did get it right and it's quite a long-standing institution in Johannesburg. Over the years I wanted proper restaurant partners and investors. and I looked around and I saw it was all corporate people who didn't really understand what I was trying to do and my biggest fans were my customers. I actually tried to do a prospectus by myself before I found Altvest and I drew it up and I did everything. Then my dad sent me a link to Altvest, which was just amazing, and I reached out to Warren and the rest is history. So, it's a wonderful platform for me to launch my concept on.
People keep having children and they keep eating food and that will carry until the end of time. I think the business has such longevity because parents need a space where they can feel safe for those ten years where they're growing their families. You can't stay in your house forever, so you do want to go out. You do want to have a wonderful time with your family and your husband and just your family in general. I think it's a place where families can really spend those years where all the families' needs are met. The restaurant is actually that area where they can meet. There's so many different opportunities within that space that families can benefit from education, entertainment. There are so many things this concept can include.
The opportunity to invest in an ongoing, solid community brand
My strength is being an entrepreneur and being creative and I can actually do that. Altvest can make sure that that scrutiny is looked after and as long as we build a beautiful, beautiful brand, I think it allows mothers to invest, not just mothers, obviously, fathers and general investors, but it allows the public to invest in a beautiful brand that really serves everyone in the community. I think the longevity of it and the value that it holds with all the products it can create, it's just never ending, actually and I really want to take it overseas. I think the potential for investors is quite an ongoing, solid concept and I don't think it's a fly-by-night. I think it's a solid, solid thing in every single community all around the world that is needed. And if it's done in a contemporary, beautiful way, I think it can be an amazing investment for everyone, actually.
We love the story of a woman-owned business with great community support that showed resilience – Akshay Karan
First of all, Bambanani is an SME and it's an SME seeking financing, but it also has a community of passionate guests and customers who have been supporting this business over a long period of time. It really does fit into a private equity investment, but that's only one aspect of it. I think the other more important aspect of it is we love the story. This is a woman-owned business with a great brand that has operated in the community for decades. They have operated through the cycle. They have built up this community of this passionate base of customers who love it. What we are able to do is overlay our listing structure and our financial engineering to give this business all the benefits of being listed without having to deal with the admin and the scrutiny that comes with being a listed company. We are really excited about the investment story, so the numbers stacked up for us but more importantly, this was an opportunity to support a business that has shown resilience, that got through the Covid period. It's now poised for growth. It has investor interest. All we need is to bring the investors to the business and the added benefit of investing in the community. So, where they are deploying the funds is also part of what makes it so compelling. All the boxes were ticked for us and we are really excited about partnering with Akshay and hopefully taking this business to the next level.
The listing is confirmed, it's fully approved. We're going to list on Monday, the 12th of December. What we're able to do is run a bookbuild process, which is an initial one-week process prior to listing where we allow investors the opportunity to effectively buy in pre-IPO. So, they buy in at the fixed listing price and secure their allocation subject to there being sufficient shares and we are exactly in the middle of that process.
At R10 a share, anybody can have a piece of it
I think that's absolutely part of what we want to achieve. We want this to be as accessible as possible. We want the big strategic investor, the mum and dad who has supported this business for years, to be able to come in and own a meaningful stake. We also want the employee who's been a passionate member of this community for years to also own a piece of it at a level that works for them. That's actually something that's going to be explicitly built into our structure. We want this to be as accessible as possible so that everybody that's been touched by this business and everybody who's part of the community to benefit from it and own a piece of it.
"Incredible interest," especially from strategic investors
So, without going into the specific numbers because obviously, it is just moving by the minute, we've seen incredible interest so far. We've got well over 50 investors so far, some of which have come in at significant quantum. So, we've raised millions already. Our targeted quantum is about R12.5 million. There is still opportunity to get involved. But what I will say is that the interest has been incredible so far, particularly from those strategic investors. I think that's been so telling. Those 5 to 10 people who have just loved this brand for years and have just been waiting to invest in it, and almost all of them have come in so far at a significant amount.
Expansion plans, including overseas destinations – Cohen
I'd like to go to English speaking countries first, Australia and America. I think there's a big need there. I'd love to go to London, I think there is an opportunity in all the European countries, but at a later stage. But I know exactly what I want. It's a boutique brand, it's a very up-market boutique brand and I have unbelievably great ideas for the brand, like really revolutionary ones that I haven't seen anywhere. I just think there's a big need worldwide for this. I haven't seen this concept the way I want to do it and I travel a lot.
I think there's not many businesses that you can easily take out of South Africa but I think this is one of them. I think it's a beautiful business. I think the needs of families worldwide are all the same, it doesn't matter where you go.
Head to https://altvestcapital.co.za/bambanani/ to secure shares in Bambanani.
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