{"id":848030,"date":"2026-01-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=848030"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T06:42:35","slug":"end-of-an-era-for-135-year-old-south-african-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/848030\/end-of-an-era-for-135-year-old-south-african-company\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era for 135-year-old South African company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

JSE-listed Aveng has announced the retirement of its Group CEO, Scott Cummins, who will retire at the end of this month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aveng was founded in 1889 in Johannesburg, and has grown into an international engineering-led contractor focused on infrastructure, building and mining in selected markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company operates through three prominent brands: McConnell Dowell, Built Environs, and Moolmans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The JSE-listed company has now announced the retirement of Scott Cummins as Group CEO and director, with effect from 30 January 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board thanked Cummins for his contribution to Aveng, both in his role as the CEO of its largest subsidiary, McConnell Dowell and more recently, as Group CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board appointed David Simpson as the Interim CEO, with effect from Cummins’ retirement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“David is a highly experienced executive with legal, commercial and management expertise in leading companies through growth, restructuring and transitions,” the group said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“David has led businesses in engineering, construction, maintenance and consulting services operating in the infrastructure, road, rail, resources and industrial services sectors.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His new key focus areas will include improving operational performance and profitability, positioning the business for future growth and resolving contractual disputes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cummins will be available to Simmons as he transitions into the interim role, especially regarding the resolution of current commercial matters related to significant claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board has appointed external advisors to assist in the appointment of a permanent CEO. While the process is underway, it may take longer than usual due to its nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group plans to release its reviewed results for the six months ended 31 December 2025 on or about 24 February 2026, with hopes of a better performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company saw its share plummet in August after it reported a headline loss of R975 million for the year ended 30 June 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss was primarily driven by the weak performance of the company’s Infrastructure Southeast Asia business unit and by losses from a dam construction in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 15 January 2025, the group’s share price has fallen by roughly 45%, taking its market cap to R865 million.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Outgoing Aveng CEO Scott Cummins<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aveng has announced the retirement of its Group CEO, Scott Cummins, with the JSE-listed construction company now looking for a permanent replacement. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":848035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[6282,24533],"class_list":["post-848030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-aveng","tag-mcconnell-dowell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848030","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=848030"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848037,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848030\/revisions\/848037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}