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We were rebuffed by every JSE sponsor - Oakbay

Johannesburg – Oakbay Investments chief executive Nazeem Howa said the group approached “every single” JSE sponsor to support Oakbay Resources and Energy listing, and the group was rebuffed by “every single one” of them.

Howa was speaking at a press briefing on the group’s financial results for the year ended 29 February 2016, at the JSE on Thursday.

"After the second and third round, River Group started coming around,” he said. He added that he is glad the group will be engaging with the new sponsor. 

Last week the group reported that it had secured the sponsorship with JSE approved River Group. The business was founded in 1998 and operated as “a small corporate finance house”, according to its website. It is now an international corporate finance boutique with offices in Tanzania, Cyprus and South Africa. 

Read: Gupta's firm saved from being booted off JSE

Chief financial officer of Oakbay Resources, Tom Scott said that the new sponsors have a mining background. “They are very entrepreneurial,” he said.

Oakbay does not anticipate that River Group would withdraw sponsorship, as Sasfin Capital did in May. Sasfin’s decision to withdraw sponsorship was because their business focus changed, said Howa.

Sasfin realigned its corporate finance practice with its sponsorship practice. They did not want to be sponsors for companies who they were not doing corporate finance for, said Scott. “The decision was made across the board.”

Following the announcement by Sasfin, KPMG resigned as the group’s auditors. Since then SizweNtsalubaGobodo was appointed as auditors.

“We tried to engage with KPMG, but in the end they decided to part ways,” said Howa.

Also read: Oakbay backs judicial inquiry into banks

Shortly after the four major banks announced that they would be closing the group’s accounts. Oakbay now makes use of a foreign bank, operating with a South African license, to continue business.

Howa said it was important to continue business to sustain 3991 jobs. He called for detractors to support the judicial inquiry into the banks for the truth to be revealed. “Detractors should support the judicial inquiry. It is a chance for them to show what we did wrong,” he said.

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