Johannesburg - Bidvest founder and chief executive Brian Joffe would step down after the unbundling and listing of the company’s food service business on the JSE, Joffe said yesterday.
Joffe, 68, founded Bidvest in 1988, and has presided over the company’s growth since then. He has been at the forefront of Bidvest’s acquisitive growth strategy, which has seen the group grow its global presence across a diverse range of industries. Joffe said he would hand over to Bidvest South Africa chief executive Lindsay Ralphs. But he said he would continue as a director to deal with “strategic issues” when needed.
“I will continue to play a role in South Africa to ensure that my expertise and experience that I have gained over the years will be made available,” he said. Joffe has been hinting at his departure since at least 2013 when he told journalists that he had devolved more responsibility to Ralphs and Bidvest Foodservice chief executive Bernard Berson. “My focus is increasingly on strategic issues and major acquisitions,” he said at the time.
Solid team
Vestact portfolio manager Michael Treherne said yesterday that Bidvest had a solid management team “who have a grip of what is going on. I do not think much will change.”
Treherne said it was a good thing that Joffe was staying on to provide strategic foresight.
Bidvest plans to unbundle and separately list its foodservice business on the JSE.
In October last year, Bidvest announced plans to restructure its business operations into three distinct and independent companies – Bidvest Industrial Holdings, Bidvest Foodservice International and Bidvest Capital. “Further to this announcement, and in order to provide shareholders with the opportunity to participate directly in Bidvest’s Foodservice operations, Bidvest intends to unbundle and separately list the Foodservice business on the main board of the JSE,” Joffe said.
The company said that the completion of the listing was subject to approval by shareholders and relevant regulatory authorities. The group has not given an indication of when the listing would take place. “The process is under way, but timing has not been announced as yet,” Bidvest said when asked for more details.
When it announced the restructuring, Bidvest said the move would enable the respective managements of the different businesses “to express their entrepreneurial flair and take responsibility and accountability for their performance and growth of their companies”.
Mergence Investment Managers portfolio manager Peter Takaendesa said yesterday that the restructuring was done in order to facilitate the unbundling of the Foodservice business. “The key issue is that the market has been looking for focused divisional heads for key businesses. Now you will have strong specialised divisional leadership that the market knows and it goes a long way in reducing key man risk,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bidvest yesterday said that it would continue to pursue local and international growth opportunities, despite the subdued trading conditions in South Africa.
Headline earnings a share increased by 13 percent to 1 001.5c a share, compared with 886.3c per share in 2014. Turnover grew by 9.6 percent to R114.5 billion, up from R104.4bn in 2014. Profit for the year increased by 9.5 percent to R3bn.
* Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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