{"id":816657,"date":"2025-03-13T11:03:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T09:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=816657"},"modified":"2025-03-13T11:04:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T09:04:02","slug":"new-ceo-for-r53-billion-mining-giant-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/816657\/new-ceo-for-r53-billion-mining-giant-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New CEO for R53 billion mining giant in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exxaro has appointed seasoned mining executive Ben Magara as its new CEO, replacing Nombasa Tsengwa, who resigned under a cloud in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magara will take over as CEO on 1 April 2025 and will be supported by Finance Director Riaan Koppeschaar, who has served as interim CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magara is a qualified mining engineer and has over 35 years of experience in hard and soft rock at underground and open pit operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is known for his strategic leadership at multiple large mining operations. He recently stabilised and restructured Lonmin, which was sold to Sibanye Stillwater, creating the world’s largest PGM producer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He founded Africa Mining & Metals Group, a mining and advisory company focused on battery and precious metals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magara has spent several years in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mining industry, advising in the Copperbelt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will remain an independent non-executive director at Weir Plc but will step down from the board of Grindrod Limited on 1 April 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBen Magara brings a wealth of mining leadership, global board, and governance experience to Exxaro along with a reputation for impeccable integrity,” said Exxaro Chairman Geoffrey Qhena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are confident Ben will stabilise the organisation and continue to drive forward our growth and sustainability strategy, particularly with the knowledge he brings from being chairman of our Investment Committee.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exxaro is highly dependent on coal, and the company wants to diversify away from the world’s most polluting fossil fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magara said he would use the group’s strong coal foundation to expand its portfolio towards critical low-carbon minerals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is in line with our diversification strategy, which I have been part of as Exxaro\u2019s Non-Executive Director and Investment Committee chairman,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I believe this strategy will enable us to deliver enhanced value to all our stakeholders while balancing enduring profitability with environmental and social sustainability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Incoming Exxaro CEO Ben Magara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tough times for the miner <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Magara’s appointment follows a period of upheaval at Exxaro, with Nombasa Tsengwa recently resigning after failing to have a suspension lifted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsengwa was placed on precautionary suspension in December 2024 over allegations of poor workplace conduct and governance practices. She claimed that the investigation was biased against her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The R53 billion mining giant is coming through a challenging period where its EBITDA and headline earnings have significantly declined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial results for 2024, the group said that overall coal sales reduced by 3% 39.4Mt in FY24, mainly due to lower demand from Eskom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Export sales, however, increased by 37% to 7Mt from 5.1Mt in FY23, driven by the use of alternative distribution channels and the improved performance of Transnet Freight Rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its renewables unit, Cennergi, saw its operating wind assets generate 725 GWh of electricity in FY24 compared to 727 GWh in FY23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue from Cennergi jumped by 5% to R1,411 million from R1,345 million in FY23. Wind generation was in line with the December 2024 guidance of 729GWh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, group revenue increased by 5% to R40.725 million. However, group EBITDA decreased by 22% to R10,423 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This drop in Group EBITDA was mainly attributable to the 16% decrease in Coal EBITDA and a negative contribution from the ‘Other’ operating segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjusted equity-accounted income dropped by 47% to R3,685 million in FY24, which was mainly driven by Sishen Iron Ore\u2019s (SIOC’s) adjusted equity-accounted income, which fell due to lower drastically due to lower iron ore prices and lower sales volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this, headline earnings decreased by 36% to R7,298 million<\/strong> in FY24, with headline earnings per share declining to 3,016 cents per share in FY24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final dividend of 866 cents per share marked a 144-cent drop from 2023. However, overall dividends for the year increased to 2,378 cents per share from 2,279 cents per share in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was due to the group declaring a special dividend of 572 cents per share in May of the 2024 financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Source: Exxaro <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Magara will take the helm at Exxaro Resources following the recent resignation of Nombasa Tsengwa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":810943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[11085,5054],"class_list":["post-816657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-exxaro","tag-lonmin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816657"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":816714,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816657\/revisions\/816714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}