The market’s morbid fascination with Ayo
The departure of the company’s two top executives deepens the mystery over why Ayo’s deal with BTSA is taking so long
Has there ever been a better example of a corporate snafu on the JSE than the events unfolding at recently listed Ayo Technology Solutions? Such developments would scare the skinny jeans off the hardiest punter. Most alarmingly, CEO Kevin Hardy and chief investment officer Siphiwe Nodwele — both appointed only in December — resigned with immediate effect last week. The market is watching in morbid fascination to see how a company that was punted to grow via acquisition and aggressive market-share gains will find strategic traction without its two top executives. The resignations of Hardy and Nodwele followed hard on the heels of a shake-out of the nonexecutive directors — seemingly at the behest of 29% shareholder the Public Investment Corp (PIC). Though the PIC appears to have gained boardroom influence, new nonexecutive chair Wallace Mgoqi has links to African Equity Empowerment Investments (AEEI), which holds a 49% stake in Ayo. Mgoqi, a former chief land claims commissioner and ...
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