Black-owned consortium buys into Ziegler

In an unprecedented move among multinationals in South Africa, logistics major Ziegler has sold a share of its South Africa business to a black-owned consortium headed up by ex BHP Billiton executive chairman Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi. “It’s part of a move to create diversity and sustainability in our business,” Ziegler ZA CEO Sean Moore told FTW. “We need to align our business with the demographic of the land – and we believe that this will add enormous value for our customers, many of whom have supported us for almost 20 years.” Convincing the shareholders of the 107-yearold European company, which owns 100% of every Ziegler business in the rest of the world, was no easy task. But their objective in entering the SA market was to gain a foothold on the continent, and they realised that this could only be achieved by playing according to the local rules of the game, said Moore. The move elevates Ziegler to level 3 BEE status, with level 2 in its immediate sights, says Mkhwanazi, who has assembled a high profile team to make up the consortium which includes logistics specialist Peter Ndlovu and a 30% female component, along with financial and marketing muscle. The move adds enormous value for Ziegler and our next priority is to develop the 4PL business in South Africa, says Moore. “Our group owns over 1 million sqm of warehousing in Europe and we want to replicate that model in South Africa. This will involve acquiring more warehousing space and rolling out the full 4PL product. We have all the IT systems and structures in place in South Africa – all we need to do is deploy them and take advantage of them.” An important element of the company’s 4PL ambitions will involve enterprise development. “It’s a space where we are very active – but we want to be more active. The owner driver scheme, for example, failed in our industry because it became difficult to manage and became very expensive. We need to find a sustainable model that encompasses the same concept but doesn’t come at the same cost. At worst it needs to be revenue neutral,” said Moore. Ziegler will be looking at a similar enterprise development concept in its warehousing ambitions. “As a business we subcontract over 10 000 tons of warehousing – which we shouldn’t be doing. If we can find a sustainable enterprise development partner who can take that on and be revenue neutral, it will be hugely beneficial. Level 2 BEE status is only attainable through those kinds of concepts,” he said. The new BEE consortium will have a 25% + 1 shareholding in the business. Moore remains the majority shareholder with the remainder in the hands of the European company. “We are probably the only multinational that is properly empowered,” said Mkhwanazi. CAPTION Ziegler ZA CEO Sean Moore and Dr Xolani Mkhwanazi shake on a deal that has seen European logistics major Ziegler selling a share of its South Africa business to a black-owned consortium. Photo: Shannon Van Zyl