WITH the settlement between the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and AYO Technology Solutions now finalised by the court, detractors of the JSE-listed tech firm have gone into overdrive with their attacks against entities of the larger Sekunjalo Group.
Such is the level of desperation, they have insinuated the settlement contributed to the deferred salary payments for the personnel of Independent Media. This is unequivocally not the case. They have also incorrectly referred to it as salary cuts.
By the way, the total amount of our salaries have been paid in full a few days after the announcement of the deferment.
Although Independent Media and AYO can be found under the Sekunjalo umbrella, the two organisations are not connected in any way. Their administrative structure is independent from one another.
In a recent interview on SABC with AYO chairman Dr Wallace Mgoqi, the interviewer laced her questions with far-fetched words such as: “Luckily for the PIC the settlement agreement says you’re paying around R20 a share. So it is a huge loss for the pension scheme, wouldn’t you say?”
There is no role for luck in this endeavour!
The erudite Mgoqi, on the other hand, would not budge from his position and maintained he was delighted the parties involved had reached this point in the struggle that had defined the relationship between the buyer and the PIC, noting “therefore it’s a pleasant development”.
Mgoqi further said: “I think you would appreciate that in any conflict, there’s destruction, and there are damages that are suffered. It is important for the parties at some point, you know, to put down their stones, or at least one party to put a stone down and say to the other party, let us talk.
“Had it not been for that we would still be engaging … all the while the talks would be fuelled by those who would want to see the conflict continuing, as certainly some of them are now.”
Mgoqi, a director of AYO and its chairman said: “Let it be on record that AYO has more than 2 000 shareholders. It’s not just the PIC.”
Mgoqi reaffirmed that both sides were dedicated to continuing their collaboration into the foreseeable future with the single objective of expanding the monetary worth of the company.
When speaking to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF) in December 2020, former Finance minister Tito Mboweni said the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is the guardian of 82 percent of the Government Employees Pension Fund’s (GEPF’s) R2.09 trillion portfolio, must receive all dividends that are due to it.
AYO has succeeded in doing that. From 2018 till the present, the black-owned technology company has distributed dividends to the PIC totalling close to R400 million. It continues to be one of the really few investments generating profits for Africa’s most significant asset manager.
This is a satisfactory return by any and all measures. AYO’s performance and the PIC’s windfall should not be undervalued when considered against the backdrop of the Covid-19 halted economy and the consequent dividend hiatus of many listed firms that decided to hold on to their cash.