Anthonie de Beer, who has been the CEO of the Reunert group for five months, stated that the company should focus on utilizing market opportunities, ignoring discussions about market difficulties or inflation. During the Geshidocon conference in Kyalami on Wednesday, he addressed TechCentral with a question about what is being done to capture a proportional share of opportunities in the supercycle environment.
De Beer, who replaced Alan Dixon in March, described the group, founded in 1888, as being in three long structural booms simultaneously. He noted that he quickly realized that the company operates in three supercycles: the energy transition, technology (where AI drives acceleration), and the defense industry. He emphasized that what matters is not which sector the company operates in, but what it plans to do with it.
These statements came against a backdrop of a challenging financial half-year. Over six months ending March 31, 2026, the group's operating profit decreased by 23% to R453 million, and earnings per share fell by 22% to 185 cents, while the interim dividend remained unchanged at 90 cents.
Most of the negative impact was felt in the electrical engineering segment, where operating profit decreased by 40% to R138 million on revenue of R3.5 billion, yielding a margin of 3.9%. Although this segment accounts for 55% of Reunert's revenue, it contributes less than a quarter of the total operating profit of the three reporting segments.
Reunert is often compared to its long-standing competitor Altron, which aggressively restructured its operations around technology platforms and surprised the market in May with a special dividend of nearly R500 million. When asked if Reunert regrets insufficient activity in changing course, De Beer replied negatively, stating: 'No, I think we are pivoting harder.'
His argument is that ICT business in Reunert was never designed to operate as a single system. The group includes Reunert Connect for connectivity, iqbusiness for digital acceleration and consulting, a national dealer channel covering 25,000 businesses, and Quince Capital, the group's asset leasing and financing division. De Beer noted that historically, there was no link between these elements. He argued that the financial component is what enables the other parts to function: for example, a company needing R500,000 for database updates can receive an assessment and funding from Quince.
The ICT segment is already supporting the entire group. Revenue decreased by 4% to R1.86 billion, but operating profit increased by 1% to R321 million, raising the margin from 16.4% to 17.2%. This segment provided more than half of the combined operating profit of the three segments before central costs, generating 29% of the group's total revenue.
Reunert's ambitions in ICT growth are largely realized through iqbusiness. In March 2023, the group agreed to acquire 74.2% of iqbusiness shares, and in November, Rob Godlonton was appointed as head, replacing Adam Cracker after 15 years. In May, Godlonton told TechCentral that the market is entering a phase of significant consolidation. He also discussed the advancement of a platform business deal in the financial services sector, serving two clients in this area, and plans to seek similar opportunities in the mining and manufacturing industries.
Godlonton prefers to avoid the term 'acquisition', insisting it is a 'joining strategy' because the goal is for businesses to join the platform, scale up, and be able to provide services to clients. This platform integrates common human resources, finance, and legal management systems to which businesses can connect. Iqbusiness focuses on three areas: data and AI, where consulting capabilities are strong but platforms are lacking; cloud and managed services; and industry platforms, based on the assumption of convergence between IT and operational technologies in mining and manufacturing.
Silversoft, announced in May under undisclosed terms, operates in South Africa, the UK, and the Middle East and is a platinum regional partner of the corporate software firm Deltek. Godlonton noted that entry into the UK market is intended to provide services from South Africa within the group's global business.
When asked how a private equity investor believes such an asset like electrical engineering should be handled—reduced, changed, or sold—De Beer gave a definitive answer: 'Selling an asset at the wrong time is absolutely wrong. It is the biggest mistake one can make. Never sell a business in such a situation.' Instead, his task is to create options. He stated that they are creating maximum optionality in their cable businesses and managing them as efficiently as possible by conducting cost optimization, investing in efficiency improvements, and seeking market segments that Reunert does not yet cover. This will allow the group to accelerate or consider alternatives when the upturn comes, as the company is currently at a very low point.
The Applied Electronics division, which includes Reunert's defense enterprises, increased operating profit by 41% to R110 million on a 9% revenue increase. This led to the group's most concrete strategic move during the period. Alongside the interim results, Reunert announced a joint venture with Czechoslovak Group, in which it receives 51% of electronic fuse production in Slovakia, integrating Reunert's developed technologies into the NATO supply chain. De Beer concluded that 'we are betting on all three directions: defense (obviously a huge opportunity), technology for all known reasons, and the energy transition.'
During the recent Top Talk 2026 Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) summit, a discussion titled 'Borderless, with Consensus' took place, featuring four prominent guests.
The list of participants included Dan Ochterlony, Vice President of Telenor Group; Anna Ip, CEO of International Digital Services, Singtel; Sean Collins, Co-founder of FDM CCS Insight; and Tan Kai, Senior Vice President of Digital Intelligence Supply Chain Solution BG, SF Group.
The discussion focused on the changing business logic within the mobile AI industry. The participants concluded that the mobile communications sector is undergoing a profound restructuring of its fundamental logic. This logic is shifting from the concept of 'connectivity as value' to the paradigm of 'experience as value,' and from traffic-based operations to token-based operations.
According to the guests, the fundamental element of this transformation is the ability of all parties within the industrial chain to collaborate to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
