The Post Office's business rescue practitioners (BRPs) say there are "positive indications" they will receive a promised R3.8-billion State bailout now that creditors have backed their rescue plan. 

More than 75% of the Post Office's creditors voted on Thursday to adopt the business rescue plan. The vote means the plan becomes binding on all creditors. 

The vote means that the risk of liquidation has receded for now. Creditors will receive 12 cents in the rand by March next year, more than they could have expected under liquidation. 

The rescue plan, first published by joint business rescue practitioners Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons last month, includes retrenching 6 000 of the company's 11 000 employees and closing more than 400 loss-making branches.

If the business rescue plan fails, the Post Office will likely be forced into liquidation.

Sending a message 

For the plan to succeed, the government must provide an additional R3.8-billion in funding. This is separate from an additional R2.4-billion recapitalisation announced in the February budget. 

While the Department of Communications has made positive noises about securing the R3.8-billion in funding, the BRPs don't have the money yet. 

Rooplal, speaking to News24 Business after the vote on Thursday, acknowledged there was still some "uncertainty" regarding the funds. 

"There has been a request made by the department (of communications) for that R3.8-billion to make its way through to the Post Office," he said. "There is a formal process that needs to run its course, hence [...] the uncertainty."  

The department was still committed to securing the funds, he said, adding, "In ongoing discussions with the shareholder, there have still been positive indications that all efforts will be made to get the funding to the entity."

Rooplal says he and Damons would like to get the funding as soon as possible.

"Obviously, the sooner we get it, the better it would be to remove uncertainty."  

The business rescue case assumes that the Post Office will receive R2-billion of the R3.8-billion in 2025 and the remainder in 2026.

Rooplal and Damons have calculated that over R1-billion a year in savings from reducing the Post office's wage bill, coupled with a decrease in other operating expenses, should push the Post Office into an operating profit by 2027.