Before the purchase, Remgro owned 62% of poultry producer Rainbow and had made an initial offer of R16 in cash or nine of its shares for every 100 Rainbow shares held by investors to acquire the remaining 38%.

Last week, Rainbow shareholders rejected the Remgro bid, which valued the remaining stake at R1.72bn.

Rainbow said shareholders would now consider an alternative offer from Remgro, which is R16 cash for every Rainbow share or 8.1 Remgro shares for every 100 Rainbow shares held.

Remgro chief executive Thys Visser last week said the share alternative in the new offer was lower because the firm wanted to encourage people to take the cash offer.