Brian Joffe thinks that there is a "rosy horizon" for acquisitions

[Partner24]

Brian Joffe, CEO of diversified conglomerate Bidvest Group, said yesterday that there is a "rosy horizon" for acquisitions.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aM5lt3encbDY

 

Going forward, Joffe said that it will keep it's business model very decentralized on the operations, but very centralized on the return on investments expectations.

 

ALEC HOGG: Looking ahead, the decentralised nature of your model - is that going to be helpful, going forward?

 

BRIAN JOFFE: Ja, for me it's fundamental to the way we manage our business, because it is diversified. And I think it's not a model which is unique to us. I think if you take, for example, the supermarket model, they have specialist people doing specialist parts of their business, and so have we. We will continue to look at our business on a very decentralised basis, and to manage in a very focused way the type of return we should get out of every component piece of every business.

 

ALEC HOGG: And another theme that goes through these results is that you have cleaned up balance sheets, you have generated more cash to position yourself well for acquisitions.

 

BRIAN JOFFE: Ja, I think this is an opportunity time, and I'm not saying we would be reckless in running out to buy lots of businesses, but we are hopeful that one or two will come our way and we can close on them. And so on that basis we can get back to our acquisitive growth as well as our organic growth.

 

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page295799?oid=314503&sn=2009%20Detail&pid=287226

 

Cheers!

[Partner24]

A recent article about some aspects of Bidvest business model and how it can handle the actual recession:

 

http://free.financialmail.co.za/09/0911/moneyinvest/fmoney.htm

 

With 80 000 employees, it has a head office that contains only 6 executives and no more than 12 peoples in all.

 

Cheers!