CentraTel, a multi-vendor telecommunications distributor in sub-Saharan Africa, has announced a restructuring of its group companies as of July 1.
CentraTel says that it will assume the role of holding company, while CentraVoice, CentraFin, CentraCell and Masakhe Telecommunications will be the respective operating companies.
The company says that CentraVoice will assume the PBX distributor function previously held within CentraTel, and, in addition, CentraVoice will be the logistics arm for the other group companies. According to the company, the group is completed by CentraCell, specializing in least cost routing, CentraFin, the group’s financing organization, and black empowerment partner, Masakhe Telecommunications.
“The benefits of moving CentraTel to the position of holding company are enormous,” says Michael Aitken, MD of CentraTel.
“CentraTel will provide a single point of contact for entities wishing to make use of CentraTel group services. It will be able to trade independently, take part in joint ventures, and exploit new opportunities that cannot be achieved by the individual companies,” says Aitken.
“In addition, we have minority shareholders in each of the companies, and it makes sense to have individual cost centres and reporting structures,” he says.
The company notes that rapid growth has also required the companies to operate independently, to maximize management expertise with regards to flexible and competitive decision-making and implementation.
Aitken adds that group functions such as credit control, logistics, strategy, training, help desk, demonstration facilities and marketing will be centralized, and scales of economies reached within the holding company.