The struggling SA Post Office wants nearly R4 billion to stay afloat. Picture: Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers
THE business rescue practitioners of the SA Post Office (Sapo) are looking for R3.8 billion to ensure that the struggling state-owned entity does not fold.
Business rescue practitioners (BRPs), Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons, have informed stakeholders of their plans to help Sapo recover following retrenchments of staff, which was finalised at the end of November last year.
Rooplal and Damons are proactively engaging with the entity’s employee committee and have promised that a new temporary employee-employer relief scheme (TERS) application has been submitted to the Employment and Labour Department.
”If successful, this would provide much-needed financial relief. We understand that financial aid of between 30% to 70% of certain payroll costs can be provided in terms of the TERS programme,” the BRPs stated.
The Post Office has not been allocated funding following Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement in November last year.
This has resulted in austerity measures being implemented by Rooplal and Damons.
In addition, a freeze has been implemented on all capital expenditure such as leasehold improvements and maintenance, building infrastructure upgrades and information technology upgrades.
According to Rooplal and Damons, they are in talks with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies for a R3.8 billion bailout as set out in the business rescue plan.
Sapo will explore other possible alternatives in the meantime and is proposing a joint task team with the department and the National Treasury as well as strategic partners and/or investment task team.
”In light of the uncertainty of the R3.8bn in funding, the BRPs are aggressively focusing on collecting all outstanding debtors and increasing revenues where possible,” Rooplal and Damons said in their latest update to the department.
Additionally, an extensive amount of work has gone into preparing a detailed strategy and financial model - considered by the BRPs to be important supporting documents to the business rescue plan.
”The detailed strategy and financial model set out the turnaround plan and deals with the ‘future proofing’ component of the business rescue plan,” they explained.
The BRPs have undertaken to continue to implement the business rescue plan to the extent despite the funding constraints.
They warned that the business rescue plan can only be fully implemented once they receive the funding or part of the funding that was committed by the government.
”The R3.8bn funding (when and if received) will be utilised to pay the top-up dividend of 18 cents to certain payroll creditors and to fund the working capital requirements of the business. The remaining portion (which is the major portion of the R3.8bn) will be used for various infrastructure upgrades/investment,” the BRPs said.
Rooplal and Damons have collected a total of 99.6% of creditor dividends of 12 cents amounting to R1.015 million, which was paid at the end of August last year.
”The remaining 0.4% of creditors is a combination of disputed claims and unverified landlord queries. The top-up dividend of 18 cents in the rand remains outstanding and payment is conditional upon the receipt of the R3.8bn funding from the National Treasury,” the BRPs said.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za
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