Cape Town - The JSE market capitalisation of broad-based empowerment deals has fallen to 3% this year from 9% in 2008 owing to the weak economy,said National Empowerment Fund (NEF) CEO, Phillisiwe Buthelezi. Last year saw R36.5bn in empowerment deals, R23.3bn of which were subsequently cancelled. In 2007 transactions worth R83.7bn were undertaken, R17bn of which were scrapped.

The rand value of unlisted empowerment deals, on the other hand, rose to R12.5bn by the end of 2008. In 2007 the figure was R10.2bn. Buthelezi said the NEF?s information on the 2009 decline had not been verified. The NEF?s bad debts escalated from 19% in 2008 to 24% in 2009. The money available for loans from the NEF - which has R5bn in capital and reserves, R2bn of which was received from the trade and industry department (DTI) when the fund was established - has already been secured for the next 24 months. Discussions on funding are being held with the DTI as well as with National Treasury