Telkom is giving serious thought to relocating its head office from downtown Pretoria to facilities closer to Johannesburg — at its campus in Highveld in Centurion — in a move designed mainly to cut costs, according to its group CEO, Sipho Maseko.
Nothing is confirmed at this stage, but it’s understood the move, if it happens, could save the company as much as R200m/year.
Telkom’s head office consists of four large concrete office blocks straddling Johannes Ramokhoase Street (formerly Proes Street) on the western side of Pretoria’s central business district.
Telkom has already moved some head office functions to its Centurion campus, which has housed the group’s mobile business and its national network operations centre for years.
The company isn’t saying much about its plans for now. In response to questions from TechCentral, all Telkom will say is that it has initiated a “complete strategic review” of its property portfolio.
“This review includes all owned and leased network, infrastructure, retail and head office buildings across the country,” a spokesman says.
“The objectives of this exercise are to right-size the property portfolio to ensure that Telkom maximises shareholder value from the way in which the company owns and uses its property and to systematically reduce property-related operating costs.”
Telkom, which has been based in the Pretoria city centre since its founding in October 1991, when it was spun off from the then department of posts and telecommunications, says the strategic review will be completed next month.
After that, it will “consider the various options and make an informed decision on the way forward”.
However, the Telkom spokesman emphasises that no final decisions will be taken regarding the nature and timing of any possible moves until the review has been completed. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
