MONDAY, 10.00AM
NEW Age Baverages, the local Pepsi bottler which last week applied for voluntary liquidation after Pepsico US refused a guarantee a bank lifeline, owed creditors more than R419-million at the end of April, the Witwatersrand High Court heard on Friday.
Major creditors are Standard Merchant Bank, where NAB held a R195-million overdraft, which has since increased to R230-million, and Pepsico, which is owed R70-million. SMB advanced an additional R1,8-million last week to enable NAB to meet wages.
NAB told the court it lost R108-million in the year to June 30 1996, which had increased to R133-million by the end of April this year. Whereas shareholders’ funds totalled R163-million at the end of last June, at the end of April they had shrunk to R59,3-million. Liabilities exceed assets by R253,3-million.
NAB chairman Khehla Mthembu said at the weekend that several local and foreign companies had expressed interest in rescuing the company.