Local technology group Altron announced in May this year that it was planning to sell Altech Autopage's subscriber base (Autopage is part of the Altron TMT stable of companies). More recently, in September, Altron announced that it was looking to receive R1.5 billion in payments from local mobile networks for the aforementioned subscriber base.
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Now, as Altech Autopage gets closer to its February 2016 shutdown, the company is hard at work mitigating retrenchments and tying up loose ends. The company's managing director Boyd Chislett believes the company is doing a very good job handling matters, despite the difficult situation. The business is currently waiting on regulators to approve its selling of the subscriber base to Cell C, MTN and Vodacom. Provided all goes to plan with the Competition Commission, things should be wrapped up by February next year. Some 105 Autopage franchise stores are set to close once things are finalised, although a few of these will be taken over by GloCell, Cell C, MTN and Vodacom.
According to the company, ongoing mobile termination rate reductions and continued industry and consumer deflationary pressures are among the reasons for the closure. Altron further said that the discontinued operations of Altech Autopage, Altech Node and Powertech Transformers together recorded a loss of R99 million.
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