Brait SA Merchant Bank`s new CEO, Anthony Ball, has blamed the collapse of the deal involving the sale of its stockbrokerage to Internet company E-data on the latter`s "poor delivery".
As part of a tripartite transaction, Brait Securities was supposed to be sold to E-data, which in turn was to form a joint venture with US online stockbrokerage E*Trade.
News of the breakdown of the R90 million deal between the three companies was made public last Thursday, at which time then Brait SA CEO, Mark Barnes, said Brait would be independently pursuing an agreement with E*Trade.
Brait SA has since announced today that Barnes has left the company, to be replaced by Ball, who is a substantial shareholder and previous joint executive deputy chairman of the group.
Barnes says his resignation was amicable and he has a number of options available to him after a well-deserved break.
Keeping mum on the possible E*Trade deal, Ball says he is not in a position to give any news regarding negotiations with E*Trade as there is a confidentiality clause in place. He is emphatic, however, that Brait SA will have nothing further to do with E-data in negotiating a deal, accusing E-data of "poor delivery".
"The simple fact is that E-data could not come up with the money. They asked us for numerous extensions to come up with the capital, but after the expiry date passed it was clear they would not raise the capital and we took the decision to move ahead without them," says Ball.
It remains unclear whether there is any connection between the failure of the tripartite deal and the resignation of Brait Securities MD, Brett Stacey. His departure comes after he admitted to unauthorised trading of his personal account.
Stacey confirmed that he left Brait Securities saying that although he admits to the unauthorised trading, certain internal regulations had not been met for quite some time. "There is more to the movements in Brait management than meets the eye," says Stacey.
Ball denied that the dipping of the E-data share price from 200c at the announcement of the deal, to the 60c close on Friday, had anything to do with the cancellation of the deal.
E-data shares took a hard knock, falling to 41c at 11am today after opening at 60c. Brait shares were up 100c to 2 400c.
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