Black empowerment investment holding company African Rainbow Capital (ARC) Investments reported growth in the value of its portfolio as well as its profit for the financial year ending 30 June 2018.
Over the period under review, the intrinsic value of the company grew by more than 11% (annualised) to R9.5bn. The company said this was despite some companies in the portfolio experiencing tough trading conditions. It was primarily due to an economic slowdown partly fuelled by political uncertainty.
The company reported a profit of R674.5m in the period under review.
All the investments in ARC Investments are made within the ARC Fund and are actively managed by the General Partner, of which Patrice Motsepe is the chair of the Board.
Motsepe said in a statement that he is pleased with the overall performance of the business, even though it is a fairly young business, having started in 2015 and listed a year ago in 2017.
“The board is confident in the way management is progressing on implementing its stated strategy and looks forward to deepening our relationships with our various business partners. South Africa offers many challenges and opportunities when it comes to broad wealth creation and wealth redistribution," said Motsepe.
Dr Johan van Zyl, co-CEO of ARC, said the company has achieved significant scale over a relative short period.
"We are satisfied with our performance as a business, which is primarily because of our partnerships with our portfolio companies and that the business is well positioned for future growth," said Van Zyl.
“Over time our performance will be sustained by the growth and improved performance of key individual portfolio companies, aided by synergistic value being unlocked across the portfolio and obviously supported by a much improved economic and political operating environment."
He said ARC continues to have significant growth ambitions.
Johan van der Merwe, co-CEO of ARC, explained that, broadly, the focus is on companies in both financial services and non-financial services.
Within financial services it looks at businesses in insurance, asset management, banking and specialist financial services. Within non-financial services it looks at businesses in telecoms, business process outsourcing, mining, property and agriculture,” says Van der Merwe.
The top five investments, measured in terms of its value in the portfolio as at 31 December 2017, are Rain; Alexander Forbes; Afrimat; BlueSpec and Elandsfontein.
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