Ramasela explains that she looks forward to leading the new unbundled ZEDA as its group CEO.
On 21 November, Barloworld announced its board’s approval to unbundle its stake in Avis Southern Africa. The unbundling forms part of the company’s “Fix, Optimise, Grow” strategy, seeing Avis Southern Africa become ZEDA.
Respected finance professional and currently the CEO of Avis Southern Africa, Ramasela Ganda will take up the group CEO designate role at the new ZEDA.
“I’m proud to lead ZEDA as we continue to play a vital role in key value chains and sectors in southern Africa. Through our Avis and Budget brands, our aim is to be a trusted partner to our customers, providing best in class and innovative services,” the 2017 Public Sector CFO of the Year and CFO Awards judge said.
The group said in a statement that this decision has been three years in the making as Barloworld reassessed its portfolio of assets in line with its shift towards a relatively asset-light and defensive business that is focused on industrial equipment and services, and consumer industries.
At the time, Barloworld had opted to sell Avis Southern Africa. However, after the subsidiary took several radical decisions to ensure the survival of the business during Covid-19, including integrating leasing and rent-a-car operations to optimise fleet procurement, manage utilisation and disposal, and increase contract creation and renewal, it emerged stronger than before.
“In short, the value of the business outweighed the offers to purchase the business from us and we took the decision to list ZEDA Group on the JSE.”
Ramasela concluded that this is the beginning of an exciting chapter for the company, and that more information about the new company will be made available soon.
