Cape Town - Sticking to the basic approach to doing business it has followed since it was founded 22 years ago, is what has led to Brimstone [JSE:BRN] not only surviving a "perfect storm", but recording a 22% increase in revenue and a 147% increase in operating profit for the financial year ended 31 December 2016.
It has also declared its 15th consecutive dividend - this time 42 cents per share.
"Last year we did not have a good year. We hit a perfect storm and some of our companies did not do well," Brimstone CEO Mustaq Brey told Fin24 on Tuesday.
"However, instead of listening to analysts and sell things off, we stuck with how we have been doing business for the past 22 years. We cleaned out our portfolio and worked our assets so they started performing again."
Sea Harvest performed well and Lion of Africa has stabilised so that it has now reduced its losses. Brimstone's investment in Grindrod has also turned positive now.
Oceana was Brimstone's first investment 22 years ago. The amount of about R7.5m invested then is now worth an estimated R2.7bn.
Looking forward, Brey said through its subsidiaries there is a lot of work being done in Brimstone's underlying investing companies, for instance in the US, Poland and India.
"We supported our investment companies and keep on looking at more opportunities all the time," said Brey.
READ: Brimstone pays out 15th consecutive dividend
Brimstone executive chair Fred Robertson told Fin24 the company invests for the long term and plays an active role.
"As Brimstone we are not necessarily going to other geographies, but rather do it on the back of our investment companies. Oceana, for instance, is now in the top ten fishing companies in the world. We rather have these investment companies go in and concentrate on what they know best to do," said Robertson.
Sea Harvest went into Australia and this subsidiary of Sea Harvest is going into China, for instance. Equites, which is into warehouses among other things, is in the UK. Life Healthcare is going into India, Poland and the UK.
"So, we are going global, but via our subsidiaries or investments. We have paid 15 consecutive dividends to our shareholders. Some of our shareholders even get dividends from two sources," said Robertson.
"Also, our shareholders must be quite happy with the latest dividend which is up 20%. This is because a lot of our shareholders are community based and 30 of our shareholders are NGOs serving the poorest of the poor. We now even have some international shareholders."
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories