Before the shares of Transaction Capital plunged by over 20% on Tuesday, the company that owns WeBuyCars and SA Taxi, announced that its CEO David Hurwitz will step down.
The company said that Hurwitz will officially resign as Transaction Capital group CEO and board director at the end of December.
Hurwitz will serve the business until 2024 to ensure a smooth handover of his duties.
“David joined Transaction Capital in 2005 and has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and success,” said the company.
Jonathan Jawno, a co-founder and executive director of Transaction Capital, will in addition to his role as chairman of SA Taxi, assume the role of CEO of Transaction Capital. His primary focus will be on unlocking shareholder value.
In the first half of this financial year, Transaction Capital communicated an expected decline in full year core regarding basic and profits per share from continuing operations.
“The ongoing macroeconomic challenges affecting South Africa’s minibus taxi industry, which started at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, prompted an aggressive restructuring of SA Taxi to right-size the business. This restructuring process continues to impact Transaction Capital’s full year core earnings per share, headline earnings per share and basic earnings per share.
“Mr David Hurwitz will step down as CEO of Transaction Capital, as a director of all boards and as a member of all committees within the group,” said the company in a statement.
Transaction Capital also stated that based on challenges of profit-margin decline faced by the company this year, it has decided to put its focus on unlocking shareholder value from its existing portfolio of existing companies, instead of being an investment and operating company only.
“The founders have the skill set, experience and expertise to fulfil this strategy. Accordingly, it is appropriate that one of the founders lead the strategic direction of the group at this time,” said the company.
In a nutshell, Hurwitz will still be at the helm of the business until December, where he will present the entity’s annual results to the market at the end of the year.
In March this year, Transaction Capital saw its share price fall to 80% and the group faced a huge mountain to turn around its SA Taxi operation.
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