Publication: Mail and Guardian Issued: Date: 2006-11-20 Reporter: Sapa Reporter:

Mo Shaik : There is Interest in Schabir's Shares

 

Publication 

Mail and Guardian
Date

2006-11-20

Reporter

Sapa

Web Link

www.mg.co.za

 

Buyers are slowly lining up for Schabir Shaik's shares in African Defence Systems (ADS), but no decision has been made on who will have first shot at what are often viewed as the crown jewels in the crumbling Nkobi empire.

Mo Shaik, the brother of the convicted Durban businessman, said on Monday that "there are various interested parties", but he would not disclose who they were.

He took over the helm at Nkobi Holdings after a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) upheld the conviction and 15-year sentence handed down to his brother by Judge Hilary Squires last year.

It also upheld a Durban High Court ruling that Schabir and his companies had to pay the state R33,8-million -- an amount viewed as the proceeds of crime.

Mo Shaik would not be drawn on whether French arms manufacturing giant Thales International, or its South African subsidiary Thint, were interested in the shares. *1

Last January the shares were valued at R21,8-million. ADS was the main contractor to produce a combat suite for the South African Navy's patrol corvette programme.

He said the entire Nkobi group would be wound down as it "would not make good business sense because of the corporate risk associated with the name *2".

He said any decision to sell the ADS shares would also have to take into account South Africa's "national interests because they are strategic assets".

News24 recently reported that Thales International holds 60% of the shares in ADS while a 20% shareholding is held by Nkobi Investments.

The ADS website, while not disclosing the shareholding, listed a third share holder, Futuristic Business Solutions.

Mo Shaik said that in winding up the company he would attempt to see that staff employed by the Nkobi group of companies would not lose their jobs.

With acknowledgement to Sapa and Mail & Guardian.


*1       Why would Thales International or Thint want to purchase these shares when they themselves are going to forfeit their 60% share of ADS once convicted on the same charge of corruption as their co-conspirator Schabir Shaik?


*2      Not to mention the putrid stench associated with systemic corporate corruption, both general and specific.