Altech, the telecommunications company 56% owned by Bill Venter’s Altron, walked into a storm at its AGM last week over its sluggish approach to transformation. And the bad news is that the Public Investment Corp (PIC) is losing patience.

This sets the stage for yet another skirmish between PIC chief executive Brian Molefe and Altech. In December, the PIC voted against Altron’s R3,4bn offer to buy out minority shareholders in Altech in protest at the company’s lack of transformation. As a result, the deal failed.

Speaking to the FM, Molefe says: “It appears they’ve made little progress on the matter since then.”

Molefe says this is despite the fact that the PIC has held a number of meetings with Altech subsequently.

The PIC owns 10,3% of Altech and is likely to have no qualms to use this if pushed, as Barloworld’s directors will attest.

Last week, Altech CEO Craig Venter defended the company from accusations by shareholder activist Theo Botha that its “empowerment credentials and track record on empowerment is sadly lacking”. Botha asked why Altech, with a market capitalisation of R5bn, has only done three BEE deals worth R32m — with Pamodzi, Nariku and Platina, headed by ex-justice minister Penuell Maduna.

Altech’s two largest arms — Autopage Cellular and electronics arm Altech UEC — still have no black shareholders.

By contrast, Bidvest has done two empowerment deals in the past 10 years. In the most recent, Dinatla consortium bought 15% for R2,4bn.

But Venter said Altech has a plan, titled Transformation Vision 2012. He added that Altech “does have some plans” on an empowerment deal for Autopage Cellular, vehicle tracking business Netstar, and Altech UEC.

“It’s fair to say my remuneration is related to how successful we are in meeting the targets [of Vision 2012] and people will be penalised for not meeting those targets,” he said.

To add urgency, Altech promised Icasa that it would increase its empowerment shareholding in Autopage to 30% in exchange for being granted a value-added network service (Vans) licence.

Chairman Hilton Davies said government has “accepted this” undertaking. But he added, “you can’t do it if it doesn’t make business sense”.

Robbie Venter, CEO of Altron and a director of Altech, said the PIC’s only real concern appeared to be the absence of black women from Altron’s board — which was remedied by the appointment of Barbara Masekela last year.

Again, Molefe disputes this. “No, it wasn’t the only problem we had, and we raised our concerns very publicly.”

With Altron’s governance looking vulnerable — Bill Venter is executive chairman and the company has yet to appoint any black executive directors — there is likely to be more pressure.

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