Shingai Mutasa and his team at TA Holdings can now easily take a long holiday. After a tumultuous take over in 1997, there was little hope Mutasa would steer the ship in the right direction, and many analysts viewed his strategy as "going by the wind". And wherever the wind drifted that old conglomerate, they were not willing to follow.
But the good times are back at TA, now leaner and smarter, so investors and analysts should prepare to exchange vows with the group and give up the affection being lavished elsewhere on other stocks.
"The future is very exciting," Mutasa says, calmly, allowing intervention from his key lieutenants, the number crunching Bothwell Nyajeka, and the indefatigable Don McDevitt.
And that future is the surrogate of years of hard work and toil.
"It's a journey," Mutasa says, reflectively. "I have a very strong vision about where the organisation is going. I've a strong passion for the business we're in."
"The team that I worked with completely bought into the vision," Mutasa says. But the market needed convincing and the years of re-positioning are beginning to earn goodwill.
"TA is a great brand. It's been in the country for over 70 years and went through a very difficult period. It took time to re-engineer," Mutasa notes.
The market is begging to see it, he says, and coming out tops in The Financial Gazette/Premier Banking Corporation Top Companies Survey might just be enough testimony that the re-engineering process has given good results.
"I know TA has never been stronger," Mutasa says, radiating confidence. But up on the 14th floor of NetOne building, in the balcony adjoining his office, we can see the Joina Centre building, Mutasa's brainchild, still unfinished about eight years since it started, and the banner of the Sammy's fast food outlet, the remnant of dream gone wrong. Sammy's was supposed to have transmuted into a powerful brand that would spread across the continent, but crumbled after Mutasa sold it off to a local businessman.
I calculate that it would be unwise to ask questions about these two projects; they are not part of the TA group, whose business I am here to discuss with the three executives. But still, it is tempting to ask how Mutasa feels looking out the window to see the magnificent piece of unfinished architecture every time he is at work.
"It's painfully slow," he says, but showing no sign of dejection.
That is one of the hazards of operating in an environment with chronic foreign currency shortages, but the team at TA is not the type to get easily despondent.
Mutasa says when he joined TA in 1997, the group was not well-structured. The head office, which had a staff compliment of at least 30 people, was a big conglomerate ultimately in charge of treasury operations for all 36 or more subsidiaries.
Now, a count of staff at head office adds up to 13 people, and treasury functions have been decentralised, a factor McDevitt says should now convince the investment and analyst’s community that TA Holdings is no longer a conglomerate, but an investment company.
"Each business is now independent. We see ourselves as investors, aggressive investors," says Mutasa.
McDevitt interjects to highlight the group's investment strategy: "The reality is we'll pursue a purely investment course - we'll look for shareholding (in companies) in which we bring influence...investments should be driven."
And to let McDevitt talk on this issue would be to ask him to follow his passion - there's a whole lecture about the art of learning companies, and we could have gone on for long hours, but I point out that he is getting technical. Then he makes his point: "You don't give up your strength (in any acquisition)".
And TA's strength, he says, is in its execution of excellence and the drive for the generation of cash.
Cash gives you the buffer and security to move in this volatile environment and look at opportunities," says Nyajeka, the group's point person when it comes to figures. Except for two insurance deals consummated recently, McDevitt says they had prevailed upon Mutasa to curtail growth, and avoid new deals during the last three years. "But now we're ready to grow," he says. Acquisitions will not be made simply because an asset is available for purchase. "There must be some synergies in terms of how we see the business," McDevitt notes, listing key factors, among them a sound business model, sound management and long term benefits of the investment to the country, for any prospective acquisition.
"We're definitely in the market to grow," McDevitt maintains, but discounts reports they are targeting a bank, although he admits a retail bank would suit well into their growth plans. Mutasa says TA should be viewed as an African Investment company, pioneered by Zimbabwean human capital and Zimbabwean businesses. "But the market for TA is Africa," he says. This is already evident, looking at the profile of TA's offshore investments. – by Dumisani Ndlela for The Financial Gazette Top Companies Magazine (Thursday 6 December, 2007, pg 28)
While that old history still counts, and over 70 years of existence for a company is hard to forget, it is the future that investors relish, and to hear Mutasa say it, the outlook for TA has never been more promising.