Transnet’s out to conquer

SA’s national port and freightrail operator is hunting for deals across the continent, from Senegal to Zimbabwe.

Transnet has drawn up a list of 18 African nations where it wants to do business and is targeting at least five transactions this year, said Petrus Fusi, general manager for cross-border strategy.

The state-owned company is also looking for opportunities in the Middle East, India and South Asia and wants to boost revenue by more than half to R100 billion, group executive for strategy Khaya Ngema said.

Transnet is seeking to expand outside its struggling home economy as well as diversify beyond its traditional business of bulk commodities.

The company, which already operates in other African countries including Mozambique and Botswana, set aside R20 billion for acquisitions and could get as much as 25% of its revenue from outside SA within six years, CEO Siyabonga Gama said in 2016.

“We want to move the company from a R60 billion company to a R100 billion company in the next three to four years,” Ngema said last week.

The company has several deals already in the works, including the purchases of stakes in a car terminal and multipurpose terminal at the port of Maputo in Mozambique, which have been approved by its board and await ministerial approval, Fusi said.

In Zimbabwe, the company and an SA-based consortium of Zimbabwean investors residing abroad won a contract to recapitalise the struggling National Railways of Zimbabwe. The idea is that the partnership develops into a long-term joint venture between Transnet and NRZ, Fusi said.

Elsewhere in the world, the company has plans for a trip to Saudi Arabia within the next couple of months and is also looking in Oman, India and Indonesia.

“The Middle East presents huge opportunities for infrastructure development, in particular rail,” said Fusi.

We want to move the company from a R60 billion company to a R100bn company. Khaya Ngema Group executive for strategy