GijimaAst, which was formed five years ago after Gijima and financially troubled AST merged, has dropped the AST from its name.
The company made the announcement last night at a gala dinner in Sandton, which was held to launch its new logo and celebrate its fifth birthday. The name change, dropping the AST part, was voted in by shareholders on Monday.
Zeth Malele, chairman of the Gauteng branch of the Black IT Forum, was among speakers who commented on Gijima's success. He says Gijima “has made an impact that we will never forget”.
However, Malele notes that the sector had not made much progress in transformation, and the forum was still seeing a lot of black companies falling aside and being liquidated. Gijima, he says, is a “success of one of our own”.
Malele adds that the companies faced many challenges when they were merging, and “very few” people would have anticipated, five years ago, that Gijima would become successful.
In March 2005, when AST released its results for the half-year to December, it reported a net loss of R80.5 million. The merger, announced in 2004, resulted in Gijima being bought by AST, which paid for the deal by issuing more shares.
Chairman and Gijima founder Robert Gumede told the audience the objective of the merger was to “put together what was then a dream”. The merger was finalised in May 2005 and saved 2 500 jobs at AST, he says.
Gumede says the combined companies have grown revenue organically, from about R1.5 billion five years ago, to R3 billion now. In 2007, the company started paying dividends, he says. “The growth has never stopped.”
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