Abil remnant clears decks for BEE drive
African Phoenix in bid to remake itself as investment company
African Phoenix is rejigging itself as an investment company that will focus on private equity, but still has the legacy issue of preference shares to resolve dating back to its African Bank Investments Limited (Abil) days. Abil, which owned African Bank, furniture retailer Ellerines and insurer Stangen, was SA's largest unsecured lender and worth more than R30bn at its zenith. But bad debts bled the company dry and in 2014 the Reserve Bank and other lenders stepped in to rescue the bank while the rest was put into business rescue. As part of the rescue plan the bank was split into a "good bank", which has recovered and trades as African Bank, and a "bad bank". African Phoenix is the only shareholder in the "bad bank", which rakes in old debts and pays what is collected over to senior creditors. It also owns Ellerines, which is being wound down. African Bank is now unrelated to African Phoenix. But now, African Phoenix - which is also sitting on a pile of more than R1bn in cash and ...
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