South Africa's Imperial Holdings aims to double its core profit from the rest of Africa in at least three years and is looking for acquisitions to fuel the growth, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Hubert Brody told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit that Imperial, South Africa's largest transport group, could spend up to R1-billion rand to bolster its African business outside its home market.
Imperial, whose trucks haul Tiger Brands and Procter & Gamble products through sub-Saharan Africa, is betting the continent's burgeoning demand for consumer goods will continue to lift its earnings.
"We would like to double our Africa business in the next three or four years and the vast majority of that should come from logistics in the consumer industry," he said in an interview at Reuters offices in Johannesburg.
Operating profit from Africa, excluding South Africa, totalled R450-million rand in the last financial year.
Imperial recently bought a Namibian transporter of consumer goods and a South African firm that moves pharmaceutical products across the continent, acquisitions that gave it warehouses in several sub-saharan countries including Nigeria and Kenya.
Both South African and global firms such Shoprite and Unilever have aggressive expansion plans for the continent of a billion people, giving Imperial and other logistic firms a reason to set up warehouses in key markets.
"We want to be their first choice as they go into the rest of Africa," Brody said.
Source :engineeringnews.co.za
