{"id":641141,"date":"2026-04-17T10:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=641141"},"modified":"2026-04-17T10:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T08:02:14","slug":"liquid-intelligent-technologies-sidesteps-questions-about-financial-stability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business-telecoms\/641141-liquid-intelligent-technologies-sidesteps-questions-about-financial-stability.html","title":{"rendered":"Liquid Intelligent Technologies sidesteps questions about financial stability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cassava Technologies has avoided directly answering whether the financial situation of its subsidiary Liquid Intelligent Technologies has stabilised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava Technologies, said the company has strengthened its balance sheet through new equity injections and refinancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband asked Liquid whether its financial position was now stable following a major debt refinancing. The company also began offering voluntary severance to South African employees this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemhiwa said Liquid had received $170 million (R2.8 billion) in cumulative equity investments from Cassava since December 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiquid has also deleveraged its balance sheet, having repaid its outstanding rand-denominated term loans at the end of February 2026,\u201d said Pemhiwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLiquid concluded the refinancing of its existing dollar-based Eurobond, replacing it with a smaller Eurobond of $300m, which was oversubscribed 2.5\u00d7.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pemhiwa said ratings agencies had recognised the improvement in Liquid\u2019s financial position following its refinancing and balance sheet measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs external validation for Liquid\u2019s financial strength, Moody\u2019s and Fitch have both upgraded Liquid\u2019s issuer rating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Fitch had upgraded Liquid to B- from CCC+, while Moody\u2019s rating was on watch for a positive upgrade into the single-B category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassava did not give a direct yes-or-no answer when asked whether Liquid\u2019s financial position was stable, nor did it state the next step in the refinancing plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding its strategy for the year ahead, Pemhiwa explained that the entire group was implementing the \u201cOne Cassava\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings together Cassava\u2019s connectivity, cloud, cybersecurity, colocation, compute AI and payments services as an ecosystem to respond to the needs of its enterprise and SME clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe One Cassava ecosystem is the most comprehensive suite of digital solutions provided by one company across Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt leverages Cassava\u2019s continental digital infrastructure and global partnerships with Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA, Anthropic, AWS, and Meta, amongst others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retrenchments at Liquid South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Amid its financial troubles, Liquid South Africa has launched voluntary severance and early retirement packages for employees, with applications open from 13 to 24 April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa told employees the process formed part of broader changes linked to the One Cassava strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rapid evolution and integration of digital technologies in the ICT sector are fuelling increasing competition and mandating rapid, effective strategic reforms for businesses,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassava said businesses such as itself must generate and sustain growth while creating value for stakeholders in a dynamic environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said its strategic vision was to become the leading digital solutions provider in its chosen markets, which required consolidating its operating model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn implementing the \u2018One Cassava\u2019 model, the company foresees the possibility of duplications and redundancies in certain job functions,\u201d it told staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said the new strategic direction included realigning internal structures, eliminating duplication, improving efficiency, and refreshing its skills base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquid said the voluntary severance and early retirement packages were intended to mitigate the need for a Section 189 retrenchment process, or at least reduce the number of employees affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese options are intended to provide employees with alternative exit pathways where appropriate, and minimise the number of employees likely to be impacted,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time in recent years that Liquid has implemented job cuts following the announcement of a strategic shift at the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Liquid Telecom rebranded to Liquid Intelligent Technologies and issued Section 189 notices during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the company said its shift from a connectivity-heavy business to a broader digital services provider required changes to its workforce structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquid denied speculation at the time that the rebranding and strategic repositioning were a smokescreen for the layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said its skills mix had to change, with the possibility of employees being reassigned and trained to support new customer solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cassava Technologies CEO Hardy Pemhiwa says Liquid has strengthened its balance sheet, but did not give a yes-or-no answer about its financial stability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":640791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41906],"tags":[77524,96337,68984],"class_list":["post-641141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-telecoms","tag-cassava-technologies","tag-hardy-pemhiwa","tag-liquid-intelligent-technologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641141"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641292,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641141\/revisions\/641292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}