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Johannesburg - Independent directors will now attend to the interests of shareholders in Sharemax's property companies.
This could speed up the untangling of the Sharemax debacle in the foreseeable future.
On Tuesday the statutory managers appointed by the South Africa Reserve Bank to see that Sharemax’s syndication schemes complied with the requirements of the Banks Act announced that three independent directors had been appointed for each of the 65 companies involved in Sharemax's property schemes.
The three independent directors are retired Judge Willie Hartzenberg, Dawie Roodt, a well-known economist and a director of the Efficient Group, and Rudi Badenhorst, an auditor with particular experience in property management.
Two Sharemax directors, Dominique Haese, Sharemax’s company secretary and financial director, and Dirk Koekemoer, the Sharemax director tasked with property management, are also board members.
Until now Sharemax has had the right to appoint all the directors of all the companies, but the company has decided to relinquish the right and bring in independent directors.
Earlier this week a meeting was held in which the former directors resigned, the new directors were appointed, and retired Judge Hartzenberg was designated chair of the new boards.
The composition of the new boards means that independent directors now have the deciding vote, but that there are still Sharemax directors who know what is happening in the companies.
Roodt, who for some time had indicated that he was prepared to help Sharemax investors, said the new board members' first task was to find out the situation in each company before any decisions could be taken.
He promised that this would not take months, but rather weeks, because the board was aware of the Sharemax investors's plight.
Investors in Sharemax's two biggest schemes, The Villa and Zambezi Retail Park, currently receive no income from their investments because the properties in the schemes have yet to be transferred to Sharemax.
Some of the investors in the other schemes are also receiving less income than before as the statutory managers decided that only the income earned by each scheme should be paid out to investors.
Certain of the weaker schemes are paying out only a small percentage of what they previously earned when Sharemax was shunting money around to subsidise the income of investors in weak schemes.
Ever since Sharemax's problems emerged various proposals have been put on the table to buy all or only some of the schemes.
Cape Realcor, which is soon to list on the stock exchange, and Bonatla, which is already listed, were among those making offers for Sharemax's properties.
Capicol, the developer of The Villa and Zambezi Retail Park, also put forward a plan to finance The Villa with borrowed money – and to give investors an income and, on completion of the centre, their money back.
The board will be able to consider all the proposals as soon as they apprise themselves of the situation.
Roodt gave the assurance that any decision to sell any of the properties or to change any of the companies' structures, if required, would first be presented to the investors for approval.
- Sake24
For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.
