Forest products company York Timber Corporation (York- cor) has made solid progress in its empowerment struc- tures, announced chairperson Solly Tucker at a presentation on the results for the six months to June this year.

The company, which is fairly illiquid due to the large percentage shareholding by family members and staff, is including previously-disadvantaged individuals in its management structures and intends increasing equity owned by empowerment firms.

Tucker confirmed that the company has operations which have been launched and managed by black-empowerment firms. Madiba Mills is one such money-making company, he said.

The JSE Securities Exchange-listed forest products company is making adjustments to its top structures so that it can benefit from the privatisation of State-owned forestry assets.

It announced last week that Benjamin Trisk, former dealmaker at investing firm Davis Borkum Hare and Mopani Copper boardmember, has been appointed as a nonexecutive director of Yorkcor.

He played an influencial role in the Premier Milling Group and helped to turn Exclusive Books into a thriving business while at Davis Borkum Hare, as well as developing a bid for the Alexkor mine, and advising empower-ment companies New Diamond Cor-poration and New Platinum Cor- poration on substantial financing options.

With a background in corporate finance, Trisk is in a position to advise empowerment companies on obtaining finance, said Tucker.

The appointment of Dr Tiennie van Vuuren, former Safcol CEO was announced at the same time.

Besides these new appointments, the empowerment emphasis is seen by the presence of former chair of the South African Housewives League Sally Motlana on the board as a director, as well as the presence of Madiba Mills executive Nthato Motlana.

Both are close to empowerment circles, and might be able to suggest a choice of people com-patible with com-pany initiatives, stated Tucker.

There are different board committees focusing on empower-ment and other stra-tegic objectives, he said.

Tucker emphasised the need to find ways to share its prospects with previously-disadvantaged individuals. The company intends to do this by buying the assets contributed by empowerment firms.

The government is in the process of privatising some of its forests, and bidding consortia must have a high percentage of empowerment ownership.

Tucker indicated that the firm would also consider establishing relationships with empowerment firms which are not in the timber business.

It has set itself targets for empower-ment participation in the company, he said, noting that 20% or less is not considered significant.

“We intend to structure the board and the share register of Yorkcor to embrace strong empowerment representation,” stated Tucker.

“The extensive experience and connections of our new directors will facilitate these plans,” he said.

Yorkcor posted a 25% improvement in headline earnings for the first half of the year, from 11,9 c a share for the six months ended in June last year to 14,9 c for the same period this year.

More of its earnings than in the past came from the construction wood market, rather than the show-wood market, or furniture wood market, which had previously been the backbone of Yorkcor’s business.