Inyatsi targets SA construction market
SWAZILAND-based Inyatsi Construction Group Holdings is gearing itself up to make inroads into the South African construction, building and infrastructure markets and targeting a listing on the JSE in the near future.
Frans Pienaar, the chairman of the group, said it currently had significant operations in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana and had already done a substantial amount of work in South Africa.
Pienaar, previously a director at Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon, said Inyatsi Construction was part of a joint venture that was awarded the R300 million contract to build a section of the N4 bypass in Nelspruit.
He said Inyatsi Construction was established in 2007 and in 2010 acquired Billion Construction in South Africa, which built the Hemingways Mall in East London.
However, Pienaar said the group had found it difficult to transfer their “DNA” to the company and had sold it last year to the Portuguese international construction conglomerate Mota-Engil.
Pienaar said the company had nine subsidiaries in six sub-Saharan Africa countries and was active in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, Uganda and Namibia.
“Operating from Swaziland, we have grown from doing a turnover of R100 million in 2004 to in excess of R1.3 billion in our 2014 financial year, of which just under R300m was from South Africa,” he said.
Pienaar said the bulk of the group’s turnover was from projects in Swaziland and Zambia, but it would like at least 20 percent of its future business from South Africa. He said Inyatsi Construction was registered in South Africa as a Construction Industry Development Board 9 contractor, the highest level, and had a Level 2 broad-based black economic empowerment rating.
Dave Roberts, the chief executive of Inyatsi Construction Group and previously a contracts director at Group Five Roads, said the group had a current order book of R3 billion across all the markets in which it operated.
Listing
Pienaar said that they had always indicated that they would consider a listing in the next two to five years, but had saying that for a while now.
“We believe the window is closer than it was and would anticipate possibly listing within the next 24 months. Obviously we have to make sure the market knows and understands us well enough to make the listing worthwhile, so a lot of work needed to ensure we are in a position where a listing adds value.
“We currently limit our growth to between 15 percent and 20 percent in real terms, purely because that is what we can afford to fund with our own cash flow. A listing would assist us to increase our growth rate dramatically because the work opportunities are out there,” he said.