Y3K mum on Lanlink speculation

By Iain Scott for ISA

Johannesburg, 23 Aug 2001

Y3K Group was tight-lipped this morning on talk that it is disposing of Lanlink, the networking company it acquired in April last year.

An industry source says that Lanlink boss Joe Myburgh was told yesterday that he and the division itself would have to go.

Myburgh could not be reached for comment, while his partner at Lanlink, Rino di Falco, refused to comment on the rumours.

"It is company policy that all media enquiries have to go through [Y3K Group CEO] Sonny Fisher," he said.

"Unfortunately I can`t even tell you if it is true or untrue."

Fisher would also not comment, saying only: "Unfortunately I can`t confirm that."

Y3K bought the Johannesburg-based company for R600 000 in cash and the issue of about 7.55 million shares, putting the deal at about R1.96 million.

The motivation behind the disposal of Lanlink would be tough to figure out, since the group`s former chairman, Linda Wengrowe, said at the release of the group`s results for the 14 months to 28 February 2001 that Lanlink had made a positive contribution to earnings.

Those results showed a group headline loss of 13.2c.

The group`s management completed a restructuring that saw Y3K left with just one of its original businesses, and Wengrowe said at the time of the results that the group was anticipating acceptable profit levels in future.