south africa hotting up

WesBank banks on Tracker
24/05/2007 19:28
By: Sikonathi Mantshantsha
Johannesburg - FirstRand-owned vehicle finance company WesBank has sold its vehicle monitoring subsidiary Mobile Data to Tracker, the stolen vehicle recovery company in exchange for a third of Tracker's shares.
WesBank will now be Tracker's largest shareholder at 32, 5%, followed by Venfin with 31% while the Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) increased its shareholding to 26, 5%. An unnamed private consortium owns the balance.
Tracker acquired all the equity in Mobile Data from WesBank to create South Africa's largest vehicle communications company with a value estimated at over R2bn.
The Mobile Data transaction, which offers fleet management and telematics through its Skytrax range of products, will increase Tracker's database by some 35 000 and bring it to approximately 450 000 vehicles.
"Acquiring Mobile Data and attracting an investor of WesBank's stature is a clear indication of Tracker's success in only a decade of operation and we believe we are now ideally positioned to take Tracker to the next level," says Tracker MD Pierre de Clerk.
"One of our goals is to become the outright leader in total vehicle communication in South Africa through Stolen Vehicle Recovery, vehicle monitoring and telematics. We can now offer a fully comprehensive service catering to the needs of both individual vehicle owners and fleet operators."
To explore opportunities offshore
De Clerk said by acquiring Mobile Data, his company not only benefited from some of the "world's most advanced" GSM/GPRS vehicle monitoring technology and telematics, but also strengthens its ranks from an intellectual capital perspective.
Tracker has also secured the technological expertise and intellectual property development rights to the Skytrax technology, which was originally developed by Infotech.
He said he believed that the Mobile Data acquisition had created a platform for Tracker to explore business opportunities offshore as it now had a complete vehicle communications suite "to rival any company in the world."
"We would, however, like to reassure our clients that we will not lose our focus on Stolen Vehicle Recovery, which for so long has been our primary business," says de Clerk.
"We see this transaction as a major enhancement to our service offering and does not in any way detract from our achievements and ambitions in Stolen Vehicle Recovery."
About 100 Mobile Data staff would go over to Tracker, making the company a direct employer of almost 1 000 staff countrywide.
Responding to a clear customer need
WesBank's general manager for Fleet, Alan Hutcheson said WesBank entered the vehicle communications market two years ago with Skytrax to respond to "a clearly articulated customer need".
He said the new partnership with Tracker would enhance Mobile Data's service offering and capability and enable it to extend the provision of its products and services to many more customers.
The MIC originally invested in a 25% stake in Tracker in 2000. It said it opted to increase the stake to 26, 5% because it had faith in the management team and the group's prospects.
"We have been extremely pleased with our investment, as Tracker has shown significant growth over the last few years," says MIC chief executive Paul Nkuna.
Could compete with Digicore offshore
If Tracker makes good on its ambitions to venture offshore, it would be joining another SA fleet management and vehicle tracking company, the JSE-listed Digicore's C-track Secure, which has been making waves in Pakistan and Europe since 2004.
Here at home, Tracker's biggest competitor is the Altech-owned Netstar which recently concluded a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal with Enos Banda's Nariku consortium.


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