MEDIA RELEASE
11 JUNE 2001
UniFer Holdings, a leader in the emerging market financial services
industry, recently announced the appointment of Gavin Kretzschmar as chief
executive officer for the group. Kretzschmar formerly served as financial
director of Standard Bank (retail banking division) and, until last month,
was chief operating officer and executive director of Peregrine Holdings.
Joel Klotnick (former CEO) will assume the position of full-time deputy
chairman to spend more time on the group's strategic direction.
Kretzschmar says: "For the first six months of the year we will focus on our
operational engine. The business is looking healthy and is trading
exceptionally well due to large volumes of payouts in excess of our
expectations."
"Most of the focus for the next year will be on consolidating and tightening
our core business, keeping it operationally tight and managing our book. We
are looking to enhance margins with income from non-funded product lines. In
a growth phase like this, the backing of Absa, our majority shareholder,
once again proves to be inestimable."
Commenting on Paradigm Capital Holding's announcement that it will be
applying for liquidation, Kretzschmar confirmed that the figure owing by
Paradigm is R55 million. We had provided for 20% against this figure. In
addition to the provisions raised, we had zero-ised the interest on the
capital exposure. Against this we hold security at a year-end audit
valuation of R70 million.
"It is worth noting that the exposure to Paradigm is a legacy of term
business which Unibank previously advanced. UniFer has refocused and does
not write business of this nature any longer."
"We will continue to apply careful risk management with continued emphasis
on prudence. This is the way we do business and reflects our commitment to
becoming a dynamic sustainable market leader based on our knowledge and
research of our tightly
defined end of the market," concludes Kretzschmar.
ENDS
ISSUED BY : Bullion PR & Communications
ON BEHALF OF : UniFer Holdings
Contact person : Gavin Kretzschmar; Chief Executive Officer
Mobile: 082 555 8483
Contact person : Ronel Muller; Investor Relations
Tel : (011) 259-7040
Profile Group (Pty) Ltd. has taken care in preparing all information on this website, but does not accept any liability for errors or out-of-date information.
