The recent terror attacks in the US have begun to take their toll on South African business, with market uncertainty causing Iscor to delay the disposal of its shares in AST Group.
JSE-listed IT group AST announced in June that it was finalising, in consultation with Iscor, the disposal of the Iscor stake in AST.
Although AST said the process would be an orderly one, the announcement led to a fall in the share price.
However, it says now that the global market uncertainty and volatility following the events in the US have led AST and Iscor to agree to postpone the process until certainty returns to the market.
AST says the placement process so far has brought the achievement of several strategic objectives.
These include analysing the business opportunities resulting from potential black economic empowerment partnerships; allocating the shares to a consortium of the chosen empowerment partners; eliminating the risk of a future overhang in AST shares; and retaining the new empowerment profile into the future.
"The result is the creation of a black economic empowerment consortium of high-profile entities with broad-based grassroots beneficiaries for the purpose of participating in the placement," the group says.
"While the process is delayed, AST`s operational relationship with the consortium continues."
By midmorning today the AST share was trading 5c or 2.27% up at 225c.
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