Jonas Bogoshi is presiding over his last set of results this morning as Gijima CEO today, as he will leave the company at the end of the year, after five years at the helm.
Gijima released its numbers for the year to June this morning and said that revenue was flat, but it narrowed its headline loss to R50.7 million from R208.97 million a year ago. The group has had a challenging year as it went through a restructuring phase after losing half of an Absa contract, and a large portion of a State IT Agency (SITA) deal to provide desktop services to the police.
The group's results for the year were significantly impacted by the cost of establishing its client-centric business model, the loss of two significant contracts, as well as the cost of an internal optimisation programme, it says in its results.
Last year's headline and earnings per share also includes a once-off expense related to Gijima's settlement with the Department of Home Affairs over the "Who Am I Online" contract.
Settling with the department resulted in Gijima incurring R374 million in costs, of which R263 million related to home affairs debt that was written off. In addition, the company wrote off another R80 million in future discounts, which it promised the department, and another R30 million in expenses related to the settlement.
Difficult period
Bogoshi says there have been tough times during his five years at the helm of Gijima, but he has learnt a lot and is confident that the company is now on a better footing after having taken out costs and strengthened the balance sheet.
In May, Gijima said it would trim between 8% and 12% of its R1 billion-a-year staff bill through retrenchments, as it faces declining revenue, because of lost deals and increasing costs. Of the 700 affected staff, some 200 people were retrenched and the balance moved to Absa, after it in-sourced more than half the contract it previously had with Gijima.
The restructuring process cost Gijima R38.3 million.
The listed company has decided to sell its non-core mining technology and consulting businesses, MineRP Businesses, to a consortium led by RMB Corvest, a subsidiary of RMB Private Equity.
Gijima has also gone through a deep restructuring of the its operations as part of its Vision 2025 plan, which it initiated in early 2011, in a bid to become more competitive. Bogoshi says the internal changes at Gijima have not only been driven by him at the helm, but also by a capable management team.
Time to go
Bogoshi says he had given himself five years with the company as CEO and the time has come to move on. He will remain in his current position until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition period, he adds.
So far, Bogoshi has no plans after he leaves the building and has not thought that far ahead, he says. He says he has three months in which to ponder his options.
According to Who's Who, Bogoshi was the chief director of strategic services at SITA between 2004 and 2007. He has also worked for blue chip companies such as IBM and Cisco Systems.