It would be a while before Telkom dabbled in acquisitions in Africa as the company was now working to implement its growth strategy following efforts to stabilise the business, newly appointed chief financial officer Deon Fredericks said yesterday.
“We’ve made good progress. We’ve stabilised the company now, and from that base we can grow it,” he told Business Report in an interview after he was formally appointed to the role. “The strategy of the company is very clear and it’s all about implementation and we’ve implemented some of the first parts of the strategy.”
He said among his critical tasks was a bid “to create required relationships with all the different stakeholders, making sure they have a clear understanding of where we’re taking the company and what role we would play in the economy of the country”.
“Over the last 10 months Sipho [Maseko, Telkom chief executive] has pulled me into the strategic initiatives, so I am fully on board on that as well,” Fredericks said.
“We are just much more focused on making sure everybody in the team knows exactly what is required, and what are the key objectives that we need to focus on… and not try to do too much.
“We rather focus on fewer things, make sure that we embed them, implement them and make sure we are successful and then go to the next focus area.”
Asked about Telkom’s appetite for acquisitions in the months ahead, Fredericks said: “At this stage in Africa, not in the short term… we’ll keep our eyes open but we’re not going to rush into anything at this stage and we want to make sure that if we do, more to the medium term, we apply the required due diligence as well as taking the lessons we’ve learnt in Africa.”
Already on the plate, he said, was the Business Connexion transaction, which he expected to be completed around March next year, followed by the MTN transaction, which would probably be completed towards the end of November, and “we are also busy with the roll-out of our next generation network”.
Yesterday the shares fell 4.98 percent amid profit taking on the JSE to close at R58.25.