Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The issue that most upsets Sharemax investors, apart from the fact that they could lose money, is the defective flow of information about what is happening with the schemes.
There is however a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.
Early next year, probably around February, the company's new independent directors are planning to arrange meetings for investors in all of Sharemax’s schemes, at which they will be brought fully up to date.
At these meetings investors will also have a bigger say in the management of the company should they want it.
At the meetings investors will have to decide whether the new independent directors should continue looking after their affairs or whether they want to appoint their own representatives to the boards of the different companies.
When Sharemax set up the different companies, the companies’ constitutions were drawn up in such a way that Sharemax itself had the right to appoint the boards for the first couple of years.
And, as long as the investors received interest, no matter its source, no one questioned the actions of the Sharemax boards.
When the balloon burst and Sharemax’s affairs were placed under judicial management by the South African Reserve Bank, Sharemax agreed to appoint independent directors.
The three independent directors, former Judge Willie Hartzenberg, Dawie Roodt, the well-known economist and a director of the Efficient Group, and Rudi Badenhorst, an auditor with particular experience in property management, are however still all Sharemax appointments.
Two Sharemax directors, Dominique Haese, Sharemax’s company secretary and financial director, and Dirk Koekemoer, Sharemax’s director tasked with property management, are also on the boards to ensure continuity.
The understanding was however that in time meetings would be held to afford shareholders the opportunity to mandate the existing board to look after their affairs, or to choose their own boards of directors.
A step such as this could have implications for Cape property group Realcor’s plans to include Sharemax’s operations in its future planning.
Other than has been reported by many publications, Realcor did not make an offer to buy the Sharemax properties.
It made an offer for the Sharemax management company, with the implication that it would then have the right to manage the properties in the group.
Realcor’s strategy was first to get the properties into shape, and then give the Sharemax investors the opportunity to exchange their investments in the syndicated companies for shares in the listed property group Realcor wanted to set up.
This would give Sharemax investors a liquid asset that they could easily sell.
If the constitutions of the different Sharemax companies were however altered in this way, so that investors and not the management company could appoint the directors, this could stand in the way of Realcor’s plans.
The other possible option is that investors approach Realcor ahead of time and appoint some of Realcor’s directors as directors of the Sharemax companies, should they want to follow the listing route.
- Sake24
For business news in Afrikaans, go to www.sake24.com.
