MultiChoice has dismissed industry speculation that it is considering moving its headquarters to Dubai, where many of its top management now reside and work.<\/p>\n
These rumours gained momentum after MultiChoice CEO Calvo Mawela joined the company\u2019s chairman Imtiaz Patel in their Dubai office.<\/p>\n
Other top MultiChoice executives who are based in Dubai include Yolisa Phahle (CEO of general entertainment and connected video) and Brand De Villiers (MultiChoice Africa CEO).<\/p>\n
This means many executive management decisions for the MultiChoice Group are now made in Dubai rather than its traditional headquarters in Randburg.<\/p>\n
What makes the decision to have its top executives in Dubai curious is that it costs the company millions extra in remuneration.<\/p>\n
The MultiChoice executives working and living in Dubai receive higher average salaries and lavish perks, including a housing allowance, fees for schools, and a lot more.<\/p>\n
Mawela\u2019s base salary, for example, increased from $371,000 to $571,000 following his move to Dubai. His company benefits showed an even bigger jump \u2013 up from $46,000 to $227,000.<\/p>\n
Including short and medium-term incentives, Mawela\u2019s total pay package increased from $708,000 to $1,591,000 in a year \u2013 a jump of 125%.<\/p>\n
The higher pay packages and additional benefits are great news for the MultiChoice executives working in Dubai, especially since they do not have to pay any income tax.<\/p>\n
It is, however, costing MultiChoice millions more in salaries and perks, which raises the question of why it would support this move.<\/p>\n
Dubai\u2019s tax regime may explain it. Dubai has no corporate tax, which means with the right structure MultiChoice can potentially save billions in future taxes.<\/p>\n
In its latest annual report, MultiChoice highlighted that it made a total tax contribution of R12 billion over the last year.<\/p>\n
As one of the largest taxpayers in Africa, Dubai offers MultiChoice and its executives a very attractive tax haven.<\/p>\n
In various online posts, MultiChoice describes itself as a \u201cbroad-based multinational media and entertainment group headquartered in South Africa, Dubai, and Netherlands\u201d.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice looks non-committal towards being headquartered in South Africa, and with its top executives sitting in Dubai,it is easy to see why questions are raised about its future plans.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice, however, dismissed any speculation that it may move its headquarters to Dubai.<\/p>\n
The company previously said Mawela\u2019s move to Dubai was because his responsibilities included looking after MultiChoice South Africa and MultiChoice Africa.<\/p>\n
Being based in Dubai, MultiChoice said, enables Mawela to be closer to the MultiChoice Africa management team and have more accessible travel into the rest of Africa.<\/p>\n
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic limiting international travel and most meetings taking place over video conferencing, accessibility should no longer be a reason to reside in Dubai.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice spokesperson Benedict Maaga told MyBroadband the move has also helped Mawela to take a more direct and greater responsibility for getting MultiChoice Africa back to profitability.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no MultiChoice South Africa executives that reside or work outside of the country, nor plans to relocate the business headquarters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Maaga did not say why so many other top MultiChoice executives are currently working out of Dubai instead of its Randburg headquarters.<\/p>\n
MultiChoice has dismissed rumours that it may move its headquarters to Dubai despite many of its top executives, including its CEO, now working there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[68368,24196,35,2860,475,26500,53921,23998],"class_list":["post-383560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-brand-de-villiers","tag-calvo-mawela","tag-headline","tag-imtiaz-patel","tag-multichoice","tag-multichoice-africa","tag-multichoice-group","tag-yolisa-phahle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":383564,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383560\/revisions\/383564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}