CAPE TOWN - DELTA Property Fund, which was suspended from the JSE last month amid a second forensic investigation into alleged procurement irregularities and misappropriation of funds by executives, said yesterday it viewed the suspension as only temporary.
The group’s boards - Delta is one of three black-managed real estate companies on the JSE - said in a notice to the JSE that it planned to publish audited and restated 2020 financial statements, and the interim results for the six months to August 31, by no later than February 26, based on their current feedback from the auditor.
Once these results were published, the board would apply for the suspension to be lifted, the company said.
In the meantime, the process to recruit a chief executive was continuing.
The share price was suspended at 35 cents, which was well down from the 67c that the share traded at a year before. Shortly after it listed on the JSE in 2012 the price reached as high as R9.6.
Delta, which owns office properties largely occupied by government-owned entities, saw its CEO, Sandile Nomvete, and its chief financial officer, Shaneel Maharaj, resign with immediate effect in August 2020. The COO, Otis Tshabalala, also elected not to complete a notice period that was initially announced at the beginning of July.
The exiting directors have denied any malfeasance at the firm. It was speculated in the media that their departure was motivated by Cornwall Crescent, a BEE consortium that owns 26 percent of Delta’s shares. Cornwall wanted to bring in new leadership at Delta after its failed merger plan with Rebosis Property Fund last year. | Edward West