10 Dec 2015

Fifteen months ago, managing director of Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), Mr Bashi Gaetsaloe, made a commitment that he would hit the ground running.

With only a year into his transformation programme, it is exciting times at BDC, having just released its audited financial results for the year ended June 2015 and the corporation has reported increased revenues and profits at both company and group level.

“We have recorded an increase of 29 per cent in company revenue from P150.4 million to P194.4 million made in the previous financial and as for the group revenue there has been an increase of 19 per cent from P286.7million in the previous year to P339.9million this year,” said acting chief finance officer, Ms Maranyane Makhondo.

She indicated that for the year under review, company profit before tax increased to P109.8 million following a loss of P67 million in the prior year.

“At group level profit before tax grew to P247.3million from P35.7million in the previous year and during the same period expenses reduced by 28 per cent at company level and by 41 per cent at group level,”’ she said, adding that this showed a commitment by the managing director to running a leaner and more efficient organisation.

For his part, Mr Gaetsaloe said the financial year had been successful for the corporation and it also marked the first year of BDC’s transformation programme and the first full year of the corporation’s strategic plan.

“Throughout this year, we have been focused on implementing our Crisis Response Plan and our long term Strategic Plan - including:  execution of our divestment strategy; increased monitoring of subsidiary performance; improvement of our origination and business development capabilities; adherence to risk and governance principles; and increased productivity driven by a growing culture of delivery and value creation,” he said.

“While we are still at an early stage, we believe our plans are bearing fruit as we have grown the group asset base to P4 Billion and all these are signs of the early success of our Transformation Programme,” he continued.

The corporation’s results came on the back of its wide-reaching transformation programme which included not only a review on the corporation’s processes, structures and policies, but also a re-structuring of its balance sheet through a divestment strategy (targeting non-strategic assets) and a turn-around programme (targeting non-performing investments). 

“The corporation has also embarked on an extensive recruitment drive to build capacity around the areas of venture capital, development finance, risk management, governance, and business origination and financial analysis,”’ said Mr Gaetsaloe.

“Under the current Strategic Plan 5-Year Plan, we expect to double our business and make a meaningful impact towards industrialisation of Botswana.  Pioneering new industries, promoting exports, creating jobs are all key priorities for our business and for our shareholder.  

“In addition, our mandate to invest outside Botswana opens new and exciting possibilities.  We are seeking innovative and commercially viable ventures both inside Botswana and beyond our borders”. Ends