DURBAN - ALLIED Electronics Corporation (Altron) chief executive Mteto Nyati was among the biggest winners in the EY World Entrepreneur Award in the Southern Africa region on Friday.
Nyati was nominated in the “Influence” category alongside Oceana Group chief executive Imraan Soomra and Pierre Spies, the chief executive of Alviva Holdings.
EY Africa chief executive Ajen Sita said Nyati would join finalists from more than 45 countries to compete for the title of 2021 EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year award in June as the “Influence” winner.
“It is no secret that entrepreneurs can change the world and help reframe the future and like many of us over the past year, they have faced a steep learning curve amid the global pandemic. Congratulations to them,” Sita said.
Nyati has been instrumental in the turnaround of fortunes at Altron since he was appointed as chief executive in April 2017.
Under Nyati the group adopted a new turnaround strategy, which included the sale of non-core assets.
It yielded fruits immediately as the group reported a profit of R168 million from all operations in the year to end February 2018, compared with a loss of R302m a year earlier.
The share price has already responded positively as it leapt by more than 218 percent in four years with Nyathi at the helm by climbing from R11 a share to a high of R35 at the beginning of December. The momentum was broken when Altron unbundled Bytes UK and listed it separately on the London Stock Exchange.
Nyati said the decision followed a review of its portfolio, which showed that Bytes’ value was not reflected in the Altron group’s share price, while its growth path was different to that of the rest of the business.
EY Africa said on Friday that Nyati had enabled the dramatic transformation of Altron, a South Africa-based ICT company, into a world-class information and communications technology organisation.
Nyati was also honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Management in 2020 and Business Leader of the Year in 2019.
Other winners included Abubaker Varachhia, the chairperson and founder of Spear Reit in the “Inspire” category as well as Isaac Chalumbira, the chief executive and founder of Lionshare Holdings in the “Ignite” category.
EY Africa said the finalists were selected from among entrepreneurs who had demonstrated excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as entrepreneurial spirit, value creation, strategic direction, impact, innovation and purpose-driven leadership.
EY Africa and programme leader Azim Omar said these entrepreneurs demonstrated extraordinary business acumen, leadership excellence and the desire to uplift and serve.
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