Imperial can spend ‘up to R5bn’ on deals in Africa and Europe
The group’s CEO says deals could start coming through in the next six to 12 months
Imperial Logistics has the firepower to spend up to R5bn on deals in Africa and Europe as it looks to fill gaps in its business, CEO Mohammed Akoojee says. “We’ve got a very good pipeline in the rest of Africa region and also in Europe, so I would expect some deals to come through over the next six to 12 months,” Akoojee told Business Day. He said the group was not looking for takeovers in SA, where it covered all the necessary bases, but it wanted to build its network in other parts of the continent partly through acquisitions. It planned to add to its pharmaceutical distribution business in the rest of Africa by also moving into the consumer goods segment. “And in Europe, we want to extend our service offering into international freight management because then we can offer our clients more of an end-to-end solution, so there’s a gap there,” he said. The group was “under-geared” after reducing debt, so it probably had “between R3bn and R5bn of capacity to do acquisitions”. Imperial...
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