09 Oct 2016

Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) managing director, Mr Bashi Gaetsaloe, says his management team has been able to turn around fortunes of the government owned investment company since taking over.  

Speaking before the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises, Mr Gaetsaloe said through their transformation programme, they managed to reverse the BDC losses and had restructured the business.

Mr Gaetsaloe said they had recruited a new team and also created a platform for a sustainable and viable growth through more robust investment, risk management and governance framework.

He said in June 2015, their revenues were up together with profit before tax, while they managed to keep expenses and impairments down.

Mr Gaetsaloe dismissed reports that they managed to achieve this because they sold some of their assets adding even without divestment income, their profit before tax increased by 160 per cent, showing underlying business was getting stronger.

He said the results were not just for 2015 financial year as they expect the trends to continue throughout the five years of their strategic plan.

“I must emphasise that while we are excited about our future, we remain cautiously optimistic. The economy is slowing down and that will pose challenges for our portfolio,” he said.
Funding remains one of their challenges.

“Optimal funding is required to ensure that our projects have the best possible chance of success: cheaper funding and longer tenures,” he said.

Mr Gaetsaloe said they had managed to obtain funding through a line of credit and have approved a bond programme to raise funds for the immediate term.

“However, given our past poor performance – these funds can be sourced only at suboptimal levels,” he said.

Chairperson of the committee Mr Samson Guma however, said more work needed to be done saying the managing director  was not convincing enough in his presentation. ENDS