A board meeting of a key Cell C shareholder scheduled for earlier this month was cancelled in order to probe alleged fraud related to the removal and appointment of company directors, TechCentral has learnt.
Net1 UEPS Technologies has become the second JSE-listed company, after Blue Label Telecoms, to delay publication of financial results because of the ongoing financial woes at Cell C.
S&P Global Ratings has downgraded Cell C’s debt to “D”, or “default” – its lowest-possible “junk” rating – after the mobile operator “failed to make interest payments on certain bilateral loan facilities” due last month.
Cell C’s largest shareholder, Blue Label Telecoms, will delay publication of its full-year financial results until late September to deal with various issues related to the mobile operator’s recapitalisation and restructuring.
Cell C has missed several payments to national roaming partner MTN South Africa, underscoring the dire financial straits in which the country’s third-largest mobile operator finds itself.
Cell C’s board has appointed Douglas Craigie Stevenson as its permanent CEO. Craigie Stevenson had been serving in act acting capacity for the past five months following the resignation of Jose Dos Santos in March.
Blue Label Telecoms’ Blue Label Ventures has invested in technology start-up Mobii Systems, which provides rugby match analysis to teams and coaches to help them plan their game strategies.
“We don’t have another chance to do this again. We have to do this right,” interim CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson said in an interview with TechCentral.
Cell C’s largest shareholder, JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, has moved to reassure nervous investors about the mobile operator’s prospects.
Cell C has begun talks to delay debt payments and hired consultants to probe its business practices and advise on a restructuring.