EOH CEO stepping down next year

EOH CEO Stephen van Coller will leave the company after a challenging five years at the helm in March next year.

Van Coller has agreed to extend his five-year contract by another six months to 31 March 2024, after which he will retire from the board.

“Stephen was appointed as CEO of EOH on 3 September 2018, shortly before the corruption scandals and contracting irregularities within certain businesses were exposed,” the group said.

“Over the last five years, Stephen has successfully led the EOH group through a complete restructure and turnaround with a focus on saving jobs, deleveraging the balance sheet and the implementation of world-class governance systems.”

Although Van Coller requested that his contract not be considered for renewal beyond the six-month extension, he will remain available to the board after 31 March 2024 to ensure a smooth leadership handover or assist with any outstanding projects that require his involvement.

The board also announced the appointment of Marialet Greeff as an executive director and interim chief financial officer (interim CFO) with effect from 1 November 2023.

Marialet is a CA and is currently the group executive for Treasury, Tax and Regulatory Finance. She will replace Megan Pydigadu, who will join Spar as its new COO.

“The roles and key performance measures of the CEO and CFO positions have changed considerably as EOH has resolved the various legacy issues, restructured the business and moved into a growth phase,” it said.

“EOH has also significantly decentralised its head office functions and, in light of this and the change in strategic focus, the board is undertaking a thorough skills assessment as part of the recruitment of a new CEO and CFO. Further announcements will be communicated in due course.”

Financials

In the group’s Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 July 2023, EOH said that it increased its operating profit from continuing operations to R135 million.

The group reported a loss per share from continuing operations of 20 cents (2022: -62 cents). The headline loss per share also stood at 19 cents per share (2022: -45 cents).

The picture is worse when looking at total operations, with the loss per share deteriorating by 44.4% to 13 cents per share (2022: -9 cents), whilst the headline loss per share almost doubled, extending 90.9% to 21 cents loss per share (2022: -11 cents).

With the continued financial strain, the group did not declare a dividend for the period under review.

The group pointed to some positivity, having completed its financing agreements with Standard Bank to refinance the remaining debt from 31 March 2023, creating more certainty around its capital structure and near-term liquidity.

“The group repaid R678 million of debt during FY2023, R555 million from net capital raise proceeds and the balance of R123 million from disposal proceeds mainly from the sale of the Network Solutions business and Hymax SA Proprietary Limited and had net interest-bearing bank loans of R683 million at 31 July 2023 (excluding the utilised bank overdraft facility of R32 million),” it added.

Below are some of the group’s key operations:

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