Dialogue Holdings, once the darling of SA's call centre industry, is still tying up a few loose ends before finally being delisted.
In March, the company told shareholders it was finalising a few outstanding issues, which are all that remain of the business.
An outstanding payment from the Gauteng provincial government, after it cancelled subsidiary Sibize's contract early; a labour dispute at Interaction; and a supplier claim at Sibize are among the matters that need to be finalised.
CEO Alan Farthing says the company is “still busy” sorting out the outstanding issues. “Nothing has changed.” However, he cannot provide a timeline for when the company may finally be wound up.
Farthing says delisting the cash shell is “still a probability”. Dialogue has no operating entities and its only assets are the outstanding claims.
Dialogue started the last financial year with five business units: the three call centre operations Dialogue SA, Interaction and Sibize; and stakes in ContinuitySA and CallForce.
Dialogue SA was liquidated last April, after the company could no longer stem its losses, while CallForce and ContinuitySA were sold. Call centre units Interaction and Sibize were closed after losing major contracts.
Farthing says as soon as the payments due to Dialogue are brought in, the amounts will be distributed to shareholders.
Dialogue was the first local call centre company to list in SA when it debuted on the JSE in September 2006, with ambitious plans to expand across SA and Africa.
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