Probe into Afristrat’s implosion

Almost all of the R1.5bn investment by JSE-listed Afristrat Investment Holdings Limited in Frankfurt-listed MyBucks SA, a microlender in several southern African countries that collapsed and is now in liquidation, has been lost. Afristrat owns a 42.39% stake in MyBucks after originally providing start-up capital loans to MyBucks but being forced to convert its loans into equity. Afristrat was previously known as Ecsponent Limited. Preference shareholders in Ecsponent had little option but to opt in May 2020 to a restructuring of the group that resulted in R2.3bn in preference shareholder debt being converted into equity in Ecsponent. Afristrat CEO George Manyere told Moneyweb that Afristrat has launched five forensic investigations into the operations of MyBucks. Three of those – two in SA and another in Botswana – have been completed. He said Afristrat is in the final stages of getting the final forensic investigation report in Zambia and has commenced with a forensic investigation in eSwatini as well.