CAPE TOWN - The shares of AltX-listed 4Sight Holdings were suspended on the JSE on Friday for late submission of financial results, in the same week that saw the resignation of four directors and the appointment of seven more.
Joining the board of the Mauritius-based IT firm were Tertius Zitzke (who will act as chief executive); Eric van der Merwe (acting chief financial officer); Marichen Mortimer; Johan Nel; Christopher Crowe; Andrew Murgatroyd and Herman Singh.
The board intended to make Zitzke and Van der Merwe the permanent chief executive and chief financial officer, respectively.
The entirely new and reconstituted board said they had engaged with the JSE and auditors last week regarding the urgent completion of the interim results for the six months to June 30.
“The board expects that the review process will be completed on an expedited basis so as to allow for the publication of the interim results by latest November 30, 2019,” they said.
However, the JSE had not acceded to their request for an extension to procure the publication of the reviewed interim results.
“The reconstituted board is committed to rectifying legacy issues that have adversely impacted on the company from both an operational and investor relations perspective and is confident that appropriate steps will be put in place to ensure the timeous completion and issue of future results,” the new board said.
The board changes follow a stormy special meeting in October in which a group of shareholders complained that the meeting had been improperly adjourned.
Also in October, the company applied for Foursight Holdings (FH), an intermediate holding company, to be put into business rescue proceedings. FH depends on cash flows from dividends and management fees from its profitable subsidiaries. But these flows had not materialised.
“The board is of the view that (on a consolidated basis) the FH operating subsidiaries within the 4Sight group are profitable businesses, which generate large cash reserves,” the previous board noted at the time.
4Sight, with some 3000 staff and services to companies in 30 countries, had acquired several companies since its listing on the JSE on October 19, 2017. Its management could not be reached for further comment on Friday,
In the 2019 financial year, headline earnings per share increased to $0.72 (R10.80) from $0.49 a year before, off the back of a sharp increase in revenue to $44.5million from $11.98m the previous year.
In that year, impairments on two acquisitions: Age Technologies Proprietary and Visualitics (Proprietary) had to be made due, to non-performance of the acquisitions.
