The shareholders of ELB Group, which was originally listed on the JSE as EL Bateman as long ago as 1930, have been advised that the business forecast for the company’s wholly owned ELB Engineering Services has not materialised, which has placed unsustainable cash funding requirements on the group.
The decision, the company says, has thus been made that the group can no longer support ELB Engineering Services and, accordingly, the board of directors of the company has resolved to proceed with placing the engineering services company under business rescue, in terms of the Companies Act.
The required resolutions have been filed and Daniel Terblanche has been appointed as the business rescue practitioner.
There has been an overall reduction in trading levels across the group, with revenue decreasing to R1 148.4-million from R1 598.1-million in the six months to December 31.
The pre-tax loss before tax for the period improved to R106.6-million from R218.6-million and the loss a share improved to 352.7c from 963.5c.
Headline loss a share improved to 64.8c a share from 966.7c a share and the net asset value per share decreased to 1 396.4c from 1 756.9c at 30 June last year.
The results for the interim period ended 31 December were negatively impacted by the depressed trading environment across all markets in which the group operates.
The full announcement is available for viewing on the group’s website, www.elb.co.za, and at https://senspdf.jse.co.za/documents/2020/jse/isse/elr/Int2019.pdf