Business Connexion seeks opportunities in Africa
It recently opened a data centre in Nigeria and recorded strong growth in the year to August.
Business Connexion is looking at acquisitions in areas such as software application and services. It has bought a small company in Botswana that is involved in the point-of-sale market and is looking at expanding that business into other parts of the continent.
Business Connexion says it wants between 25% and 30% of its revenue to come from outside South Africa.
Company chief executive Benjamin Mophatlane said the group was expanding its footprint in selected countries partly in response to the requirements of existing retail clients who were expanding in the region. He said the company had other clients such as telecommunications operators.
"In Nigeria‚ we had a fantastic year and we want to maintain that growth"‚ he said, adding that in Kenya the company had been unable to secure a significant contract.
Profits up, growth remains solid
Mophatlane says he is confident the situation will change as the business gained momentum. "There is a solid pipeline in Nigeria and Kenya‚" he said.
Business Connexion's operating profit for the year to August rose 17.3% to R322.6m. Revenue rose 5.9% to R6.2bn as a result of solid growth across most divisions. The growth was mostly organic‚ with only 2.1% attributable to the acquisition of Integr8. Business Connexion says its divisions performed well despite challenging market conditions.
The international division exceeded expectation with the Nigerian operations the largest profit contributor.
Irnest Kaplan‚ managing director at Kaplan Equity Analysts‚ said Business Connexion could have done better. "The whole performance was not as good as I think it should have been. There are areas that I thought could have been better‚" he said.
He sees Business Connexion's positive results coming from the expansion of the products and services provided by Integr8.
Kaplan says another area that could unlock growth is the partnership with Arinso‚ a global human resources software and services provider. As part of the deal‚ Business Connexion sold Q Data DynamiQue business to Arinso in exchange for a 50% stake in Arinso South Africa.