A year after Reunert exited a saturated market by closing Nashua Mobile, Allied Electronics (Altron) has announced the advancement of talks aimed at shedding South Africa’s sole independent service provider, its own embattled subsidiary Autopage.
JSE-listed Altron on Tuesday said the company was at an advanced stage of negotiations to potentially dispose of Altech Autopage’s GSM subscriber bases, renewing its cautionary for the third time since discussions kicked off in January.
In an update to shareholders, the company said the decision to dispose of the subscriber bases emerged after an anticipated recovery in the performance of Autopage failed to materialise in the second half of the 2015 financial year.
The unit, operating under Altron’s telecommunications, multimedia and information technology business, had been weighed down by market saturation and price deflation, which had offset cost-saving gains, as well as the continuing negative impacts of the lower mobile termination rates on the now-discontinued operation.
Certain material noncore assets were identified for disposal following Altron’s review of the group’s business strategy, which resulted in a plan to narrow the group’s focus to areas where it had sufficient resources, competence and skills to leverage a competitive advantage.
Autopage had been South Africa’s last remaining independent service provider and had acquired Nashua Mobile’s 65 000 Cell C subscribers for R91.5-million.