Mustek waits on share price

By Nicola Mawson for Mustek
Johannesburg, 02 Sep 2009

Mustek may put an empowerment deal on the table when its share price moves back up, it says.

Financial director Neels Coetzee has clarified a Business Report article published yesterday, which indicated the deal had been scrapped this week because the company's share price was too low.

Coetzee says the deal was in fact cancelled a year ago. In the company's annual result for 2008, released on 29 August 2008, it stated: “Negotiations with a potential black economic empowerment partner have been terminated.

“However, the group is committed to a process of further transformation and will advise shareholders on progress made in this regard,” Mustek said at the time.

Coetzee says shareholders were not keen on a deal that would have seen the empowerment partners receive about a 50% discount to the company's net asset value. At the time, the share was trading well below net asset value.

He says when that gap is closed, the company is likely to put another deal on the table, which shareholders should be happier with.

Mustek's net asset value is R5.27, but its share was last seen trading at R2.40.