RPC Data, the local Information Technology which in November 29 ceased to be a public company, said it was forced by losses to exit the Botswana Stock Exchange.
Finance Director, Davison Charamba, said the IT outfit has not been making profits in the past few years. The profit for the year ended May 2013 stood at P3, 5 million compared to P9, 3 million in 2012.
The company only returned to profitability in the last half of 2012, however, the return to profitability did not impact positively on the share price.
“The company had to delist to return value to shareholders as the scrip was undervalued for a long time,” said Charamba.
He said shareholders can now expect to receive just over double the value that they could have achieved if they had sold their shares on the BSE.
Charamba said it was not cost effective to run a company of RPC’s size as a listed company as the market size was not big enough for the company to grow at the expected levels of its investors.
“This is further proven by the fact that in 1999 RPC became the first IT Company to be listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and till it got delisted, remained the only IT Company listed on the BSE,” added Charamba.
He said the company will operate business as usual. “There will not be any material changes to the operations of the company. ┬áThe legal status of the company remains that of a public limited company. There will be no change in the management or staff of the company,” he said.
Charamba revealed that the company plans to grow more in proportion to the existing market size. “It will service its customers better and is likely to announce newer products and services in the coming year,” he said.
