EXCLUSIVE: The ghost of EOH is BACK, and this time it’s using YOUR MONEY to pull off a corporate heist in BROAD DAYLIGHT. iOCO, the scandal-ridden tech firm formerly known as EOH Holdings, is now on a FRENZIED stock-buying spree, snatching up millions of its own shares while investors are left to ask: WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?
In a move that reeks of financial engineering over genuine value creation, iOCO has just plunged ANOTHER R9.4-million into its own stock. This isn’t a sign of strength; it’s a DESPERATE PLOY to artificially prop up their share price and enrich insiders. Since August, they’ve vacuumed up 4.29 million shares, a clear signal they have nothing better to do with their cash than play shell games with their own equity.
Behind the carefully worded statements about “shareholder interests” and “financial flexibility” lies a DARK TRUTH. This is the same company that nearly imploded under the weight of historic governance failures and debt mountains. Now, flush with cash from a recent “turnaround,” they’d rather buy back stock than invest in growth, pay down crippling debt, or make real amends.
Management boasts of a “return to profitability,” but this so-called turnaround is BUILT ON SAND. They generated R566.6 million in cash flow, yet the priority is hoarding shares in treasury? This is a classic tactic to shrink the share pool, making their earnings per share look healthier while doing NOTHING to address the rotten core of the business. They are prioritizing short-term optics over long-term stability.
Even more SHOCKING is their audacious plan to now go on an acquisition spree. So they’ll burn cash on buybacks AND go shopping for other companies? This is a recipe for DISASTER, a reckless gamble with investor capital that could collapse under the slightest market pressure. The board’s “solvency test” is a meaningless checkbox, a legal fig leaf for a management team desperate to rewrite a legacy of failure.
This isn’t a comeback story; it’s a CORPORATE DECEPTION playing out in real time. When a company with this much baggage chooses financial trickery over transparency, you know the endgame is near. The question every South African investor must ask themselves is this: are you funding a phoenix rising, or merely throwing cash into the funeral pyre of a doomed enterprise?
Author: Kayitsi.com
