Why Mark Lamberti is splitting apart a transport empire
Imperial Holdings will be no more if Mark Lamberti meets what is probably his greatest challenge: to cleave the company as we know it today, into two distinct, separately listed businesses of motor retail and logistics. But is it a split that makes sense?
We’ve got a second chance, and I don’t think we’ll get a third," says Mark Lamberti about the "Cyril Spring" — the wave of economic optimism that has enveloped SA since former president Jacob Zuma was deposed three weeks ago and replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa. Lamberti is well-placed to make such a diagnosis on how precarious SA’s economic recovery will be. His most obvious claim to fame is that he’s the CEO of the sixth-largest company in SA by revenue — logistics giant Imperial, which clocked up R119bn in sales last year in 33 countries, operating thousands of supply-chain routes, car rental outlets, and importing cars and vehicle parts. It is one of the 30 largest logistics companies in the world. But Lamberti is also one of SA’s most outspoken CEOs and has spent the past few years raging against the creeping dissolution of ethics. That’s why, last month, Ramaphosa’s new government picked him to be a nonexecutive director among those mandated to fix electricity utility Eskom, perhap...
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