Africa-Press – South-Africa. JSE-listed private school group Curro has appointed chief financial officer Cobus Loubser as its new CEO.
Current CEO Andries Greyling, 52, will resign from the board on 1 January 2023 “to pursue other interests”. He has been CEO since 2017 and with Curro for the past 15 years.
Loubser joined Curro at the beginning of last year. He was previously CEO of Long4Life’s Sport and Recreation division, which included Sportsmans Warehouse, and, before that, chief financial officer at Holdsport for 11 years.
A chartered accountant, he started his career at KMPG and previously served as the financial manager of Virgin Active SA.
Curro also announced that its executive for corporate services and the group company secretary, Mari Lategan, will be the company’s new deputy CEO. She has been with Curro for six years. She previously founded a strategic business and communications consultancy firm, and was a general manager at Media24.
Curro’s share price recently hit its lowest level in a year. For the six months to end-June, the company’s revenue increased by almost 16% to more than R2 billion, while its profit saw a sharp increase. But bad debt of R74 million – about 4% of turnover – remains higher than before the pandemic.
Analyst Anthony Clark of Small Talk Daily Research called the management change “sudden”, and said Greyling’s departure is “quite a saddening affair”.
He said Greyling inherited many problems created by an “overly ambitious” growth strategy from the previous management and founder-shareholder PSG.
This saw significant growth in new schools and a rapid rise in debt, which necessitated a rights issue.
Clark said Greyling “right-sized and streamlined” the strategy that was foisted upon him, cut costs, and improved margins and school utilisation. He said Greyling’s performance was admirable and that it was a pity he wouldn’t see the expected earnings growth recovery as CEO in the next two years.
But he added that Loubser has a strong grasp of the company’s underlying financials, with a stronger presentation style than Greyling’s and the “cut and thrust” that institutional investors would prefer to see.
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