Knott-Craig to step down as Vodacom CE
Alan Knott-Craig wants to step down as Vodacom Group CEO and intimates that he would like the company’s shareholders, the UK’s Vodafone and SA fixed-line operator Telkom, to give him the go-ahead to leave before his contract expires in 2009. “There has to be life beyond Vodacom,” he told the Financial Mail in an interview this week.
Knott-Craig, who has suffered a number of heart attacks in the past few years, says he believes that Vodacom has a capable management team that can keep the group on its growth trajectory.
“We have strong first- and second-tier management in this company,” he says. “Whether I’m here or not, it doesn’t matter a damn. The company is in good shape to run without me. It’s just a matter of shareholders saying it’s time you take a break and it would be really nice to take a break.”
Knott-Craig, who is Vodacom’s founding CEO, is credited with building the cellphone group from nothing into an enterprise worth well over R100bn and with 30,2m subscribers in five African countries.
This week, the group again reported strong annual financial results, with operating profit up 22,5% to R10,9bn on the back of a 20,9% rise in revenue to R41,1bn. The group also announced plans to compete in fixed-line communications in SA, in direct competition with 50% shareholder Telkom.
First published on Duncan McLeod’s FMTech
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