‘Sagarmatha is great for Africa’
Attacks said to be bid to stop transformation in media industry
THE South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu) came out strongly in support of Sagarmatha Technologies yesterday, saying its investment in the media and e-commerce venture would benefit workers greatly, with the country’s fashion being showcased beyond its borders.
Sagarmatha will become Africa’s first multi-sided platform (MSP) company.
Sactwu said its investment in Sagarmatha Technologies would mean bursaries for its members and include a range of other benefits – one of the most important being promoting locally made garments.
“In the future, we envisage a much bigger market via Sagarmatha’s e-commerce and content platforms in taking South African-produced fashion to not only local citizens, but making them available to customers beyond our borders.
“We believe this is a winwin scenario,” said Sactwu.
“The South African clothing and textile sector has taken a beating in the last few years, so investing into Sagarmatha Technologies means we are participating in the new economy – digital – which will be more inclusive and sustainable.”
The listing of Sagarmatha Technologies has been widely lauded by its investors, which include black empowerment groups.
Black Business Council secretary-general George Sebulela, in an opinion piece published last week, also pledged support for Sagarmatha Technologies’ listing.
“The Black Business Council’s (BBC) support of Sagarmatha Technologies is based on its own interrogation of the business model, and the fact that broad-based-black involvement in this venture will free up participative economic growth by putting it into the hands of the people – literally,” wrote Sebulela.
“It would be remiss of us as at the BBC to ignore the attempts to derail Sagarmatha Technologies’ listing, with attacks from some quarters on some of the personalities, businesses and institutions involved. “While focused on this, they have missed the finer points of the MSP business model, especially when in South Africa alone the forecast for online spending is expected to reach more than R53 billion in 2018.”
Federation of Unions of South Africa general secretary Dennis George also complimented Sagarmatha.
“Sagarmatha is great for Africa, great for the youth and is in line with the YES campaign under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“Sagarmatha will train thousands of young black engineers in the areas of artificial intelligence, data science and software development.”
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange has granted Sagarmatha Technologies approval for a listing of up to 1 214 718 441 shares in the media sector on its main board and is due to list on Friday.
INDEPENDENT Media has said that it was well ahead of schedule with the repayment of its debt to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
The group said it had already made a sizeable capital repayment early in the investment phase.
It said it had also serviced interest payments to its other minority shareholder, Interacom, amounting to more than R380 million, since acquisition.
Group executive chairman Dr Iqbal Survé said the attacks on Independent Media were designed to stop meaningful transformation in the media industry and prevent black people from accessing capital markets.
“It is so obvious that the competitors wish to sabotage the successful listing of Sagarmatha Technologies and the inclusion of Independent Media,” said Survé.
“At a time when we are trying to attract investment into South Africa, they are actively discouraging this investment with strong racial and ethnic undertones.”
The statement comes in the wake of media reports that the much talked about JSE listing of Sagarmatha Technologies – which will have an interest in Independent Media post-acquisition on the listing date – is meant to raise money to repay the media entity’s debt to the PIC and other creditors.
Survé said Independent was not obliged to disclose its financials as it was a private company.
Accelerated “The JSE listing and Sagarmatha Technologies’ subsequent acquisition of Independent Media changes this,” he added.
“Although there was no requirement to pay the 50 percent until September 2018, Sekunjalo and Independent Media have accelerated the repayments.”
Independent Media was a shareholder of Sagarmatha Technologies and would benefit financially from the listing.
“Sekunjalo put up all the money to modernise what was essentially a legacy media house when it took over Independent Media… This is value that was added by Sekunjalo after the previous owners disbanded the printing operations in Johannesburg,” it said.
The media entity said Sekunjalo had funded these improvements for the benefit of all the investors and shareholders, and for the employees who worked within these structures.
“The reality is that Independent Media has benefited at no cost to anyone else other than Sekunjalo, who has solely invested in the modernisation of the business.
“It has moved from a legacy print business to an advanced content technology business that consistently wins global awards for its innovation,” the company said.
Independent Media reiterated that it carried no bank loans and that all its debt was to shareholders who had a vested interest in the long-term success of the business.
Shareholder debt is generally the most junior debt in a company.