Adapt IT CEO takes leave
Sbu Shabalala, the founder and CEO of technology group Adapt IT — the subject of two takeover bids valuing the firm at R1bn — will step aside for three months, amid reports that he hired thugs to beat up his estranged wife’s partner. Adapt IT shares fell as much as 13.14% on Monday.
Sbu Shabalala, the founder and CEO of technology group Adapt IT — the subject of two takeover bids valuing the firm at R1bn — will step aside for three months, amid reports that he had hired thugs to beat up his estranged wife’s partner.
The shares of the technology firm, which started trading on the main board of the JSE in 2008, fell as much as 13.14% on Monday, the stock’s worst day in more than a year, amid the allegations surrounding Shabalala’s marriage at the weekend.
The Sunday Times reported that the partner of Neo Shabalala — Sipho Nzuza — was in a critical condition in a Durban hospital, and that Neo sought an interdict against her estranged husband on Friday.
By the close of trade on Monday, Adapt IT’s shares were 93c lower at R6.20, giving the firm a market capitalisation of R898m.
Adapt IT told shareholders on Monday that Shabalala had “been granted a leave of absence for three months by the board in order to attend to personal matters”. Tiffany Dunsdon, the company’s chief commercial officer, will take over as CEO in the interim.
Asked for comment by Business Day, Shabalala’s spokesperson said “given the divorce court proceedings and the inherently private nature of the matter, Mr Shabalala has been advised by his legal representatives to decline to make any statements at this stage. He will, however, be available to make a statement at some future time or on some future occasion when it is deemed fit.”
The group, valued at R914m on the JSE, has still seen its shares more than triple over the past 12 months, and has recently been on the receiving end of buyout offers.
The provider of software solutions to the education, manufacturing, energy, financial services, communications and hospitality sectors, was subject to an R800m takeover bid from Huge Group, first announced in January.
The battle for Adapt IT intensified in April after Canada’s Volaris made a R6.50 per share offer, or a 56% premium on the closing share price on April 1. This valued Adapt IT at about R1bn.
On Monday morning, the technology firm said its independent board tasked with considering the buyout offers needed more time to do its job and the firm had extended its deadline to later this week.
Adapt IT had set up the board to advise on the merits of the Huge and Volaris offers, and it had not yet made a recommendation. As part of the conditions for moving forward with the Volaris offer, the panel had to give an opinion by April 30. That has now been extended to May 14, after an initial extension to May 7.
MR SHABALALA HAS BEEN ADVISED BY HIS LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES TO DECLINE TO MAKE ANY STATEMENTS AT THIS STAGE