CHAOS at Bonatla last week — leaked details of its deal to buy a chunk of the Durban Point Development from Malaysian company Renong and its suspension from the JSE — has at least drawn attention to the re-emergence of Bonatla’s controversial founder, Niki Vontas.

Vontas, well known among property pundits, is forbidden from acting as a company director because he was sequestrated in May 2004 over a debt of R75m he owed to people who sold properties to Bonatla, and to whom he gave guarantees.

As the Financial Mail said in 2000, Vontas’ early deals turned “vendors into shareholders as Vontas paid sellers well for their properties, much of it in Bonatla shares valued at a premium on the ruling price (on the JSE)”.

Vontas was sequestrated because his punt on the rise of Bonatla’s share price proved wrong — and the people who sold properties to Bonatla came hunting Vontas for money, as the Bonatla shares they were paid didn’t reach the heights Vontas expected.

Now Vontas has reappeared as a “consultant” to Bonatla and it is he who helped engineer the Renong deal. Bonatla lists Vontas as a consultant to CDA Property Consultants, which manages assets for Bonatla. CDA is headed by Carolyn Douglas, a director of Bonatla said to be romantically tied to Vontas.

When I called Bonatla’s Johannesburg head office last week to speak to Robin Rainer, who is listed as Bonatla’s only executive director, Vontas answered the phone and handled all inquiries.

When asked about his sequestration, Vontas quite correctly said he had a right to earn a living. But the question is, are Bonatla shareholders aware of the extent of the role he is playing in reviving Bonatla?

Bonatla’s latest annual report says Rainer — a 68-year-old whose residence seems to be in Kynsna — holds 56% of Bonatla through DreamWorld Investments 158. (Rainer is the only director of DreamWorld, elected in July 2004 on the day that Carolyn Douglas resigned.)

So last week, when Bonatla announced the Renong deal and seven others worth about R350m in total, it was notable that Bonatla would pay for properties using its own shares in all but one case.

In the Renong deal, Bonatla will pay R35m upfront, and the rest either through a bank guarantee “or by the issue to Renong of R115m renouncable shares in the share capital of Bonatla”.

Will these sellers be any more careful about taking Bonatla shares than people have been in the past? And can Bonatla handle this commitment, given its relatively low market capitalisation of R66m?

It was also notable that in the R150m Renong deal, Bonatla will pay advisory fees of R39m — equal to 26% of the price — to three brokers, including R9m to Douglas’ CDA Consultants. (Even there, the R39m fee will be paid through 39-million Bonatla shares of R1 each — nearly triple Bonatla’s present 36c price.)

However, this related-party involvement means Bonatla will have to get a fair and reasonable opinion to give to shareholders, which could be fascinating.

Bonatla, the company Vontas listed in 1997 but which plummeted back to earth in 2004, is firmly back in the ring.

(First published in Business Day, 29 January 2007)