Leadership Review
As our iconic Ndoro symbol represents the unfolding of new life, strength and inter-generational bonds, so too does our history. In the first five years of KTH’s existence, we have made remarkable progress, evidenced by four transformational transactions, including two businesses outside of South Africa and the closing of 16 disposals, which realised significant value, all contributing to our strong balance sheet. This has confirmed our ability to implement our clearly defined investment strategy.
KTH’s vision is explicit in defining our strategic approach and our ambition to become a leading black-owned pan-African investment company. Our investment strategy aims to position KTH to achieve our vision by specifying the criteria we seek in our investments and across our portfolio. Of note is our desire to be an active long-term shareholder of reference. Our values are at the core of our business philosophy and frame the way we conduct our business.
Specifically, we seek to align our values with those of the leadership of the companies in which we invest, which supports our ability to influence their growth and sustainability.
Two vital and inter-related principles of our business philosophy differentiate KTH as we strive to become a pan-African investment champion. The first is our commercial approach, defined by our desire to be longterm shareholders who play an active and influential role in the strategic direction and sustainability of the companies in which we invest. The second is to be recognised as a company defined by its intention to create social value in the markets in which we operate.
People are at the heart of our business and to ensure we are able to attract and retain the best talent in South Africa and across the African continent we continue to invest in creating a compelling value proposition for our people. This is mobilised through our five key focus areas, which are aligned with our vision, mission, values and strategy. These focus areas include talent management, building a unique culture, developing and training employees for growth and excellence, promoting wellness at work and ensuring that we have effective human resources reporting and metrics in place. We are fortunate to have built a team with the expertise and experience to execute our strategy, while driving growth.
In keeping with our aim of being a successful and sustainable black-owned and managed company, we recognise that achieving excellence and transformation are not mutually exclusive. KTH is passionate about South Africa’s social and economic transformation and it demonstrates this commitment through consciously seeking to ensure that transformation is on the agenda of all our investee companies, whether this pertains directly to BEE or the broader aspects of socio-economic development which may be pertinent in each case. Furthermore, through both Kagiso Trust (KT) and Tiso Foundation (TF), we have been successful in achieving a high social impact, largely through our focus on large-scale educational projects.