State-owned arms manufacturer Denel is finding it increasingly difficult to raise finance as its pool of funders has become very limited, with the bulk saying they did not want to touch the cash-strapped group. This was reported by Denel chief financial officer Odwa Mhlwana at a briefing before Parliament’s public enterprises committee. He said funders’ appetite to support Denel has decreased: over the last year, Denel had to refund R766m to funders who no longer wanted to provide it with a long-term funding facility. Mhlwana stressed the need for an equity injection into Denel, which he said was finding it difficult to take on new business as it was not able to provide its customers with the required advance payment guarantees. The group did not have the banking facilities to provide this. Denel has experienced a liquidity crisis over the last few months, which at one stage threatened to result in the nonpayment of salaries and debts to suppliers. Mhlwana noted that for each month ...
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