Altron chief financial officer Alex Smith will step down at the end of February 2018 to take up the same role at Net1 UEPS Technologies. Smith had been at Altron for 12 years.

Smith replaces Herman Kotze as CFO at Net1. Kotze was appointed as Net1’s CEO in June 2017, replacing Serge Belamant, who retired.

“In his role at Altron, Alex has been responsible for all financial matters within the Altron group and has played a key role in the restructuring and refocusing of the group,” Net1 said in a statement to shareholders on Friday morning.

“I am thrilled that Alex has decided to join the Net1 family,” said Kotze in the statement. “His international background, familiarity with public capital and debt markets, and financial management experience across a diverse and multi-site group are important attributes as we embark on the most exciting time in our corporate history.”

Prior to joining Altron, Smith worked in various positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Edinburgh, Scotland and Johannesburg from 1991 to 2005, initially as a trainee accountant and later as audit manager and associate director of the “transaction services” department focused on providing specialised corporate finance services.

Smith holds a BLaw (honours) degree from the University of Edinburgh and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.