MINING and steel group Iscor has welcomed a move by two major shareholders to defer a special meeting to shake up its board, saying it left it free to focus on its unbundling plans.
Mining company Anglovaal Mining and the state-run Industrial Development Corporation, which together hold about 26% of Iscor, said in a statement at the weekend that they would defer their call for a shareholders’ meeting to oust six directors they accuse of eroding the group’s value.
“Iscor is pleased that they have called off the special general meeting as we believe it served no purpose at this late stage of the restructuring process, as it would have simply served to delay the release of shareholder value,” said Iscor?s Phaldie Kalam. “It does allow us to give all our attention to focus on the unbundling and release shareholder value.?
Anglovaal Mining and the IDC said in their statement that they would defer their call for a shareholders’ meeting pending “a comprehensive evaluation of various options”, including Iscor’s plans to split the group in two.
Kalam said Iscor’s plan to split its mining and steel interests into separate entities to be listed in early July were on track, adding the group was confident that the listings would receive strong market support despite current volatility.
Iscor, under pressure after showing poor results in recent years, said early last month that its iron ore, coal, base metals and heavy minerals businesses would be transferred into a new company, Minco.
The steel assets would be held in a separate listed firm, Steelco.
Iscor said it valued Minco at R32 per share and Steelco at R20 a share, valuing the unbundling at around R13bn.
Iscor’s share price, which zoomed to a year high of R28 in early March on news of the unbundling as well as plans by the alliance to shake up the group, slipped 0.44% on Tuesday to end at R22.50, in line with a weaker Johannesburg bourse.
Kalam said most Iscor shareholders favoured the board’s unbundling plan and were adopting a wait-and-see attitude regarding the planned revolt by Avmin and the IDC.
Avmin spokesman Julian Gwillim said the deferral did not stem from any concerns that their proposal to remove several Iscor directors, including executive chairman Hans Smith, would not get majority shareholder approval.
“We are merely looking at Iscor’s restructuring proposal and a number of other options, but they are fairly sensitive and so we are not releasing them at the moment,” said Gwillim. – Reuters
ZA*BUSINESS:
Too little, too late for Iscor bosses March 6, 2001
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Avmin looks to give Iscor a shake-up February 1, 2001