BL Premium reports that Kalagadi Manganese’s major creditor and 20% shareholder, the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), has approached the court to put the mining company into business rescue.
Daphne Mashile-Nkosi is the effective owner of 67% of Kalagadi, which has built a large manganese mine and sinter plant in the Northern Cape. But Kalagadi has had a troubled past and the IDC now appears to be at the end of its tether over R3bn of debt and what the lender says are potential defaults on other loans. The IDC said in court documents that there was a reasonable prospect of rescuing the company by affording it a much-needed debt moratorium, which would be of benefit to its 1,153 employees, creditors, shareholders and affected persons. In a replying affidavit, Kalagadi’s CEO Thulo Malumise hotly denied that defaults were imminent and said the IDC was acting in bad faith because the two parties were in talks on restructuring the debt. The African Development Bank and Absa are two other lenders heavily exposed to Kalagadi. The IDC repeatedly made the claim that Kalagadi was “financially distressed” and had failed to make repayments on debt. By the end of April the debt stood at R3bn.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
- Read too, IDC’s Kalagadi Manganese business rescue application opposed, at Mining Weekly
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page