TUESDAY, 8.00AM
NEW AGE Beverages, the troubled local Pepsi bottler, halted production yesterday, and refused to allow workers into the plant. Workers, who gathered around the gates, were told to come back on Wednesday. They have been paid until the end of May. (See below)
Shares in Standard Bank Investments, which financed the Pepsi bottler, fell six percent yesterday after the MD admitted that “we will definitely have a loss, and it will be quite sizeable”.
MONDAY, 10.00AM
NEW Age Beverages, 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.