Avusa’s former chief executive Prakash Desai was granted share appreciation rights last Friday, the day on which he stepped down from his position as chief executive of the media and entertainment group.
The rights, which were allocated at no cost to Desai, had a value of more than R2.5 million on Friday.
Neither acting chief executive Mike Robertson nor finance director Howard Benatar were available to provide an explanation for the bizarre twist in a drawn-out corporate saga.
However, Jacques Schindehutte, who has just been appointed lead independent director of Avusa, said yesterday that these latest share awards had already been included in the settlement agreed between Desai and the board at last week’s meeting.
Schindehutte explained that the awards had been made following a remuneration committee meeting in June, but could not be allocated to Desai because Avusa was operating under a cautionary announcement relating to the proposed Capitau due diligence exercise.
Desai was apparently notified of the share award on September 15 as was Benatar, who also received an allocation.
Schindehutte could not explain why Desai had waited until Friday to accept the share award. But stressed: “We’ve made the settlement with Desai and these have been included.”
According to the JSE announcement late yesterday the share rights were conditionally awarded and vest in three years “subject to fulfilment of a performance condition”.
The 2011 annual report reveals that at the end of March 2011, Desai in addition had 541 051 share incentives, which had vesting dates between June 2011 and September 2013. More than half of the share incentives had been awarded to Desai at no cost.
In a second JSE announcement Avusa also notified shareholders that Mikki Xayiya, who had been appointed acting chairman of the board, had been appointed non-executive chairman. Because Xayiya is associated with major shareholder, Mvelaphanda Group, he is deemed in terms of governance rules to be not independent. This is why Schindehutte, an independent non-executive director, was appointed lead independent director.
Colin Cary, who is a non-executive director of the Avusa board, has been appointed managing director of Retail Solutions, a company he co-founded and sold to Avusa last year. - Ann Crotty