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Johannesburg - The closing of Mvelaphanda Resources, the JSE-listed black-owned mining house, should not be seen as "blacks messing up" but part of the company's evolution.
On Friday, Mvela Resources chairperson Lazarus Zim sought to dispel suggestions that the development was due to the failure of black economic empowerment (BEE).
He said the collapse of Mvela's pyramid-holding structure and the consolidation of its assets in platinum miner Northam advanced the company's interests.
"All we are doing is we are exiting all these other investments, where we did not have influence, in order to focus on what we have always wanted to do.
"We announced three years ago that we wanted to be in platinum and that we would exit gold and use our money to get a good position in platinum. That's what we are doing now," he said.
"The move also helps us get rid of a value trap of R2bn, which is caused by the discount in our share price relative to the net asset value."
Mvela Resources announced this week it had quit acquisition negotiations with Impala Platinum and had decided to consolidate all its remaining assets in Northam.
The company said the strategy entailed the orderly disposal of the remaining shares it holds in Gold Fields and other non-platinum assets. It said it would use sale proceeds to reduce its debt and to subscribe for rights in Northam's Booysendal project when it came on stream.
Zim said the closing down of Mvela Resources was in no way taking BEE backwards. "This is great for empowerment. We should not get hung up over names. We could have just called Northam Mvela. We could have just used the name.
"This move is anything but failure. It brings us nearer to the cash flows. As Mvelaphanda Holdings and Afripalm we will still be the biggest shareholders in Northam, a listed company.
"This means blacks will now be operating the asset. We will not be sitting in a head office somewhere. Look around the JSE. How many companies have a black holding at 27%. There are not many."
Zim said he could not understand how a situation that resulted in a company being out of debt and sitting with more than R1bn in cash could be called failure.
"I think its just a question of sensationalism. People are just looking for bad news ... black people messing up. This is not the story this time."
- City Press