[miningmx.com] — The Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC) showed a “strong recovery” in its annual review for the year ending February 2011, chief executive Paul Nkuna said on Thursday.
MIC’s investment portfolio grew from R1.2bn in 2010 to R2.2bn in 2011, he told reporters in Johannesburg.
This was an increase of more than 80%, after MIC’s net assets declined by 40% during the 2008 global financial crisis.
“Our challenge is to take it up to R3bn in the next two to three years,” Nkuna said.
The MIC had investments in 14 companies, with the star performers in the last year being Metrofile and Tracker, Nkuna said.
“The beauty of them is there’s still a lot of opportunity to perform better.”
MIC also had stakes in FirstRand, Primedia, BPSA, General Electric SA Technologies and Peermont Global.
Set up in 1995, the MIC has one shareholder, the Mineworkers’ Investment Trust.
It was established with seed capital of R3m from the National Union of Mineworkers to alleviate the plight of its members. However, it does not invest pension funds or subscriptions of NUM members.
“We were mindful that mineworkers would still not be in a position 10 to 20 years down the line to… pay for their children’s education.
“The intention was to ensure the children of mine and energy workers have access to higher education.”
The MIC, through the trust, had produced 700 graduates to date, Nkuna said.
It also funded a retraining programme for retrenched workers and assisted emerging farmers, particularly in Mpumalanga and the Kokstad area in the Eastern Cape, as the bulk of mineworkers and retrenched workers came from rural areas.
“Their only means of survival is through agricultural activities, therefore we focus on this.”
Nkuna said communal farming was not working, which was why the MIC focused only on individuals who were passionate about farming and had shown the will to farm.
Each farmer assisted by MIC employed 15 to 20 people, which did “a lot towards alleviating poverty”.
The aim was to ensure each agricultural project became self-sustaining.
Farmers were assisted in accessing markets through MIC’s partnership with retailers like Pick n Pay and Shoprite in Mpumalanga.
MIC declared a dividend of R245m in 2008 which provided capital to the Mineworkers’ Investment Trust to use for five years.
“Come 2014 we have to declare another one… and we can’t give them less than before.”
To achieve this, MIC would concentrate on cash-generating investments.
With its aim of true black economic empowerment, MIC wanted to remain an active equity partner in all of its investing companies.
“You can only achieve influence and control if you have a meaningful stake.”
The company aimed for a minimum stake in each investing company of 26%.
In the coming year, IC planned to consolidate its investments, but would also be looking at new opportunities, possibly in alternative energy and health.
