Share

Denel exhausts cash reserves, can’t pay suppliers

Johannesburg - State-owned arms manufacturer Denel, until recently the poster child for well-run state companies, can’t pay its suppliers after apparently exhausting its cash reserves on an ill-advised acquisition.

This mismanagement is the apparent reason Denel took the drastic move to place CEO Riaz Saloojee, chief financial officer Fikile Mhlontlo and group company secretary Elizabeth Africa on “special leave” following a board meeting on September 23.

Denel officials told City Press’ sister paper, Rapport, that staff at the arms company were caught completely off guard by the board’s decision to force Saloojee, Mhlontlo and Africa to go home for two months.

Even Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown had no idea Denel was going to force its three top executives to go on leave pending a forensic investigation.

The decision came barely six weeks after the appointment of Daniel Mantsha as Denel chair in one of Brown’s “board rotations” at state companies.

On top of everything, the three executives were not even in the country when the board gave them a handful of days to give reasons they should not be suspended.

They were returning from London, where they had marketed Denel at the Defence and Security Equipment International exhibition – embarrassingly pushing the message that the company’s international prospects haven’t looked this good for some time.

When they got home, they applied for an extension to enable them to provide reasons they should not be suspended, but the request was denied.

The board’s move against the executives is allegedly related to the R855 million acquisition of land mine-resistant vehicle manufacturer BAE Land Systems SA in April, after which the company was rebranded Denel Vehicle Systems.

While Denel has been touted as one of the only state-owned companies still achieving solid financial results, it turns out that this acquisition pushed it into a liquidity crisis.

This is because the company’s suppliers have been panicking for some time after a cash crunch forced the company to suspend payments for goods delivered, say suppliers.

In June, with the release of its annual results, Denel bragged about growing its revenue by 28% to R5.9 billion.

Its reported cash balance then was R1.9 billion and in its annual report, it confidently claimed to have “sufficient cash facilities” to keep trading.

That cash balance did not yet show the effect of the BAE deal, and now Denel owes its creditors millions for components it had to acquire to keep up with its own international orders.

Some of the smaller suppliers, which mostly sell only to Denel, said they had reached the point where they could only survive for a few more weeks before starting retrenchments.

“We simply can’t indefinitely go on delivering components,” said one.

“Denel can’t give us any answer about when this cash flow problem will be resolved. They said it would, at best, be in December, but even that is uncertain.”

This supplier has reams of correspondence between himself and Denel, in which the arms manufacturer makes promise after promise to pay him.

Some suppliers are especially furious after Denel, in similar letters, told them that it would probably stop buying from them because of their inability to help carry Denel’s financial burdens.

They are in effect being punished for not being able to survive nonpayment.

In other letters, Denel admits that if it paid the suppliers, it would not be able to pay its own employees.

Pam Malinda, Denel’s spokesperson, said the company had a healthy order book, with deliveries scheduled for seven years from now.

“We appreciate the support of our suppliers, who realise how important the economic benefits of a successful Denel are,” she said in response to questions.

The BAE deal gave Denel control of a manufacturing plant in Benoni on Johannesburg’s East Rand, and Denel was displaying the latest BAE vehicles in London last month.

One of the beneficiaries of the R855 million deal is the 25% shareholder of BAE, DGD Technologies, which has Moeletsi Mbeki as a director.

Previous Denel CEO Shaun Liebenberg has questioned the wisdom of the acquisition, saying there was a global oversupply of the mine-resistant vehicles made by BAE.

Sources in the weapons industry also question if board chair Mantsha had been appointed to Denel with a particular political agenda in mind.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
Who we choose to trust can have a profound impact on our lives. Join thousands of devoted South Africans who look to News24 to bring them news they can trust every day. As we celebrate 25 years, become a News24 subscriber as we strive to keep you informed, inspired and empowered.
Join News24 today
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Rand - Dollar
18.97
-0.3%
Rand - Pound
23.97
-0.3%
Rand - Euro
20.48
-0.1%
Rand - Aus dollar
12.36
-0.1%
Rand - Yen
0.13
-0.4%
Platinum
907.94
+1.2%
Palladium
1,014.30
+1.3%
Gold
2,215.39
+0.9%
Silver
24.91
+1.1%
Brent Crude
86.09
-0.2%
Top 40
68,346
+1.0%
All Share
74,536
+0.9%
Resource 10
57,251
+2.9%
Industrial 25
103,936
+0.6%
Financial 15
16,502
-0.1%
All JSE data delayed by at least 15 minutes Iress logo
Company Snapshot
Editorial feedback and complaints

Contact the public editor with feedback for our journalists, complaints, queries or suggestions about articles on News24.

LEARN MORE
Government tenders

Find public sector tender opportunities in South Africa here.

Government tenders
This portal provides access to information on all tenders made by all public sector organisations in all spheres of government.
Browse tenders