Media Comment - 04 April 2002

M-Cell's asset swap approved by Reserve Bank

The corporate asset swaps that Deutsche Bank arranged for Sasol, M-Cell and Nampak were done to fund offshore investments and had the Reserve Bank approval. The three deals were worth about R3bn (experts have testified that turnover in the Rand forex markets averages about USD6bn and USD10bn a day.) Finance executives of the three companies emphasised that the deals were designed to be neutral for SA's foreign exchange reserves and did not cause capital to flow out of the country.