Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said on Thursday that the newly appointed CEO of Gyro Group, the operator’s property management business, Lesiba Maloba, has been tasked with “ruthless execution” in commercialising the group’s property portfolio.
Gyro was established in April to “unlock value by commercialising the Telkom group’s property portfolio, extract value from excess building capacity and diversify income streams through property development, masts and towers, and property management services”.
Maloba’s appointment as CEO of Gyro is effective from Monday, 13 November. “I have every confidence in his capability and expertise, and wish him well during his tenure,” said Maseko in a statement.
In June, Maseko announced that Telkom is being restructured into a new holding group — which will have a new name — with at least five subsidiary businesses in fields as wide-ranging as wholesale telecoms and property asset management.
It represents a significant expansion of Telkom’s decision, two years ago, to spin off its wholesale business into a new company, called Openserve.
The new holding company will be something like Remgro, which has investments in a range of industries, Maseko said at the time. It will be a “strategic shareholder”, with each subsidiary freed to “pursue its growth agenda as independently as possible”.
Maseko said that by the end of Telkom’s current financial year — 31 March 2018 — the group should be made up of five businesses: retail telecoms entity Telkom, IT services business BCX (formed through the merger of Business Connexion and Telkom Business), wholesale arm Openserve, e-commerce/online business Trudon and property management company Gyro.
Own P&L accounts
“These companies will be held by one owner, which will be called ‘X’, and which will exercise 100% control and ownership,” Maseko said. As separately managed entities with their own profit and loss accounts, the companies will be empowered to make decisions that help them grow, and won’t be held back because their decisions might not suit other entities within the group. “Given how vertically integrated we are now, it’s difficult to add value.”
New Gyro CEO Maloba holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Cincinnati and his career in property includes roles in research, property development and management as well as property investment and transactions for the Public Investment Corp, Old Mutual Properties and Ernst & Young Africa, Telkom said in Thursday’s statement.
Prior to joining Gyro, he was part of the project management office for the partnership between the Development Bank of South Africa and the department of public works, where he handled property transactions and strategic projects, established joint infrastructure funding programmes and developed a broad-based black economic empowerment policy.
Telkom will publish its interim financial results for the six-month period ended 30 September 2017 on Friday. It’s expected that Maseko will use the opportunity to outline more details about the restructuring plan. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media