Gijima - which has raised the JSE's ire by failing to publish results and faces suspension of its shares - is set to leave the bourse on 12 May, after 15 years as a listed entity.
This comes after shareholders earlier this month overwhelmingly (99.38%) voted in favour of a R2.20 takeover bid from the Guma group, which is led by Gijima chairman Robert Gumede. Subsequent to that vote, all outstanding conditions have been met, and the company is now set to go private.
Guma increased its stake in Gijima to 88.3% after underwriting a R100 million festive season rights offer, which failed to gain traction from other shareholders, and subsequently offered minorities R2.20 to take the company private. Gijima closed at R2.10 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of R125.8 million.
Shareholders have until the end of the month to trade shares, after which they will be suspended pending the delisting. In its heyday, in April 2010, its share price reached almost R50, but this was just before the Department of Home Affairs cancelled the multibillion-rand "Who am I Online" contract in a surprising letter that stated the deal was "invalid".
Committed to governance
Gijima, which was meant to publish its interim results by the end of last month, reiterated - in a statement - that it "will remain committed to high standards of good corporate governance and transparency".
The JSE has given the ICT outsourcing company until the end of the month to post its results or it will be suspended. Gijima notes, once it is out of a closed period post the voluntary delisting, it will keep its stakeholders abreast of its "solid and satisfactory turnaround progress, and the required salient supporting financial data".
Gumede's Guma has committed to provide the company with operational and financial support as it continues with yet another turnaround strategy. It says this process is going to plan under CEO Eileen Wilton and her management team.
Gijima has recently been through turbulent times, and is more than one-third through yet another three-year turnaround strategy. In the year to June, the company reported turnover lower at R1.5 billion, down from 2013's R1.8 billion, but trimmed its net loss from R294 million to R153 million.
However, the company needed to roll over its R213 million debt, and has entered into a new deal with its financiers, pushing out the due date of the debt into equal tranches due between 2017 and 2020.
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