Miller parts ways with Gijima

John Miller, JSE-listed Gijima's first CEO after the group came into being following a merger around seven years ago, has parted ways with the company.

Yesterday, the group announced that Miller withdrew his willingness to be re-elected as a non-executive director before the annual general meeting. As a result, he retired as a non-executive at the conclusion of the meeting.

Chairman Robert Gumede, who also founded the Gijima group, thanked Miller for his "years of dedicated service and loyal support to both Gijima and the board". Miller had surpassed the maximum nine-year period recommended by King III.

In April 2005, AST Group and Gijima Technologies merged to become the GijimaAST group. Gijima dropped the AST some time ago, after it rebranded. At the time of the merger, Miller became CEO and stepped down to make way for Jonas Bogoshi two years later. Bogoshi recently quit as CEO of the group.

Miller retired as CEO in June 2007, an unexpected announcement as he was 67 and "already beyond the group's official retirement age" when he was asked to stay on to complete the merger between selected businesses owned by Gijima Info Technologies Afrika and the AST Group of companies.

Miller spent 35 years in senior, executive director and CEO positions in ICT companies, which include ICL, Unidata and Unisys. He left the MD position in Unisys to join AST in October 2000 as marketing director. In January 2003, Miller took over as CEO of AST.

Meanwhile, Gijima has received a downgrade from Global Credit Rating (GCR), which noted there was political and macroeconomic uncertainty that could result in further delays in the rollout of both government and private sector IT projects.

Eyal Shevel, head of corporate sector for Africa, explains that the downgrade is unlikely to have significant consequences for Gijima as it has already refinanced its funding facilities. However, if it needed new debt soon, this could be harder to obtain, he adds.

Shevel says Gijima's rating could improve in the medium-term, but this would depend on the company's ability to return to profitability and, thereafter, sustain consistent growth. GCR pointed to the loss of income from the Who Am I Online contract with home affairs and said "the further loss of business could significantly impair revenue generation and operating performance".

Gijima notes that it has a sound business strategy in place and has gained enough new business to help the company maintain consistent revenue levels. "Gijima's growth plans remain on track."

The leadership of Gijima, together with its employees, are working hard to make sure the business model and processes the company has in place are robust enough to ensure it is able to weather the storm, it says.