Sefalana gets nod to buy Delta Dairies
Isaac Pinielo | Tuesday June 9, 2015 18:00
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal in Gaborone approved the sale of the citizen milk producing company to Sefalana Holdings for the amount of P23 million.
Delta Dairies was liquidated in April, which paved the way for the auction sale for any interested buyers to bid for the company.
It is understood that Sefalana became the highest bidder among companies that included Parmalat Botswana, Clover and other South African companies.
Sefalana group finance director, Mohamed Osman confirmed they are in the process of buying Delta Dairies, but denied to reveal further details pending the finalisation of the transaction.
“As a listed company, we need to publish the information on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) first before we can share it with the press,” he said.
In the past two months, Sefalana has been flighting cautionary statements on the BSE website; advising shareholders that the company was in the middle of negotiations with a third party which, if successful, could affect its share price.
With this transaction, Sefalana is expected to clear off all the Delta Dairies debts and pay off all the creditors of Delta Dairies including outstanding salaries for workers and other services that were provided to the company.
It is understood that the over 54 workers will be paid their two months salaries while the other creditors are expected to get close to P10 million.
Among some of the creditors include P187, 200 being fuel supplied by Tswana Fuel, P77, 750 for professional services provided by BDO Services, P600, 437.07 for cleaning chemicals and equipment supplied by VodaClean, P843, 300.84 as salary arrears owed to Herman de Lange and Scharl Varnfield representing the over 54 workers that are owed salaries.
The other P175, 479.38 is for goods sold and delivered by General Packaging Industries, P2, 158,274.60 for UTI Botswana which provided freight forwarding services, P1, 144,747,90 for money lent and advanced by Global Holdings Botswana and P4, 624,560.18 (R5, 610,191.51) goods sold and delivered with services rendered by Tetra Pak South Africa.
Delta Dairies is said to have failed to pay the amounts they owed the creditors despite several demands and attempts made by the creditors, including attempts to attach some of the citizen-owned milk processing plant’s assets.
In August last year, the Registrar of the Industrial Court issued a Writ of Execution against the milk company after it failed to pay its employees the outstanding salaries.
The acquisition of Delta Dairies comes a few months after Sefalana bought juice making company, Golden Fruit, which was mothballed in 2013.
Currently, Sefalana holds total or part equity in Sefcash, Foods Botswana, MF Holdings, Kgalagadi Soap Industries and Commercial Motors as well as in a range of other interests in timber, mechanised farming, property and travel and tourism.