By Bruce Whitfield

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THE planned move by lawyers at banking group Nedcor’s wholly owned legal subsidiary Edward Nathan Friedland (ENF) to their new Sandton premises has been postponed indefinitely. It follows a recent fire on the upper level of the refurbished West Street offices that were set for occupation by the end of this month.

ENF plans to lease about 62% of the 12 000sq m of available office space in the R125m building (funded by Nedbank Property Finance) from a subsidiary of developers Edge Properties. The rest will be let to other tenants. But the fire badly damaged the roof, and experts are still determining whether there was any structural damage to the building.

The cause of the fire – at the building dubbed "Mini-me" due to its architectural similarity to parent Nedcor – is not yet known and there are no estimates as to the cost of the damage.

The fire is unlikely to derail any final decision on the future of ENF in the Nedcor group. Nedcor paid R400m for ENF in 1999, believing that the deal would generate substantial corporate finance activity for the group.

ENF’s pre-tax operating profit, after paying directors but excluding corporate overheads and financing costs, was R31,3m in 2000, R29,3m in 2001, R14,7m in 2002 and R20,8m last year.

Nedcor CE Tom Boardman is currently selling off the group’s noncore assets and has confirmed that the relationship with ENF is under review. In a Sens announcement earlier this year, Boardman told shareholders that a new structure was being considered within the group.