More than two million disabled South Africans stand to benefit from a new partnership entered into between SMEC South Africa and the Disability Empowerment Concerns (DEC) Trust, in partnership with the Kapela Holdings Group.

Signed at an official ceremony at SMEC South Africa’s Randburg head office on Wednesday 15 February 2017, the agreement will see Kapela Holdings Group manage and channel dividends from the consulting engineering company into six major NGOs catering for disabled people in South Africa.

This also forms part of the profit-sharing requirements of SMEC South Africa in terms of its Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) obligations. “A portion of our profits will go to people with disabilities, ranging from blindness to mental health and epilepsy. They will be the direct beneficiaries of our partnership,” CEO Kostas Rontiris commented.

“The whole idea was to find a partner that would fit in with our culture and values. Kapela Holdings Group and the DEC Trust represent over two million disabled people in South Africa, the majority of them black. By concluding this deal, we are giving back to the communities in which we work,” Rontiris affirmed. “It simultaneously makes us compliant with the latest BBBEE legislation, and increases our competitiveness in the marketplace.”

Kapela Holdings Group Executive Director Makhup Nyama described the partnership as the beginning of “an exciting journey. We are pleased and happy to have forged this relationship. We tend to favour global companies with great management and performance, and that is what we have found in SMEC South Africa.” “The Kapela Holdings Group manages companies, of which 12 are multinational investment portfolios,” explained Executive Director Dr. Henri Staal. “We comprise a small professional group with business backgrounds. We work closely in partnership with the DEC Trust, and also manage its interests in terms of the Kapela Fund. In turn, from a business perspective, we will add value to SMEC South Africa’s business wherever we find an opportunity to do so.”

Nick Matthews, partner at KPMG heading up Deal Advisory, Mergers & Acquisitions, transaction advisor for the agreement, said that the process to finalise the partnership with the Kapela Holdings Group had commenced in June 2016. “We enjoyed working with SMEC South Africa. As engineers and accountants, we both have a similar collaborative culture. Like any transaction, it had its challenges. We sincerely hope it will be a successful relationship at the end of the day.”

Commenting on the current state of the market, Rontiris said that, while it was still relatively quiet in terms of activity, SMEC South Africa was “doing very well. We have a record high for work in hand at the moment, and we are still growing at a steady pace, while the economic fundamentals remain constrained.

If you look at our GDP growth rate of about 0.4% as a country, as a company we grew our top-line revenue by 12% last year. This is testament to how successfully we are focused on our core business, which is the provision of professional services for infrastructure delivery.”