Neotel has denied rumours that retrenchments might be on the horizon as it prepares to be acquired by Liquid Telecom.
"Neotel confirms there are no plans for retrenchments or job cuts related to the acquisition of Neotel by Liquid Telecom, and therefore that no staff have been issued with notices in this regard," Genevieve Kieser, Neotel's general manager for HR, told ITWeb via e-mail.
"There is currently a process under way to restructure the procurement division, but this is unrelated to the merger," she explained.
This after ITWeb requested comment following a tip from a reader who said Neotel staff had received a notice about restructuring and job cuts, with staff told they would need to re-apply for positions.
Kieser says that in terms of the restructuring of the procurement division: "We have had one mutual separation; however, no other headcount losses are imminent."
Last week,Liquid Telecom CEO Nic Rudnick told ITWeb his company had no intention to cut jobs if or when its R6.55 billion acquisition of Neotel is finally approved.
"We are not planning to scale down Neotel; we are planning to scale it up and we will grow it. We are not going to go in and start restructuring it in a manner that sees jobs being reduced or anything like that," he told ITWeb on the side-lines of the AfricaCom 2016 conference in Cape Town.
In June, Liquid announced it planned to acquire Neotel for R6.55 billion. The deal includes a partnership with Royal Bafokeng Holdings, a South African investment group, which has committed to take a 30% equity stake in Neotel.
The deal came after a long-awaited R7 billion acquisition of Neotel by Vodacom was called off in March.
Last week, Rudnick said the Competition Commission had approved the deal and the company was waiting for the final regulatory approvals to come through but was "very hopeful the transaction will close very soon".
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