Isipho Capital Holdings acquires majority shares in Smith Capital Equipment

Isipho Capital Holdings (Pty) Ltd (“Isipho”) announced the acquisition of majority stake in Smith Capital Equipment (Pty) Ltd (“Smith”), a local manufacturer of Aerial Platforms (Cherry Pickers) and Drilling Rigs.  With 42 years’ experience, Smith is a household name in the aerial platform market through its own brand, Superlift™ as well as its Hotline branded drilling rigs. The company also imports and installs premium brands of Aerial Platforms and Truck Mounted Cranes from leading multinational companies around the globe including but not limited to Terex, Oil&Steel, PM, Bronto Skylift, etc.

The transaction was funded by the National Empowerment Fund and has been earmarked as one of the 100 Black Industrialists, a DTI initiative to create increased black ownership of local manufacturing capabilities.  It has one of the most critical elements of broad based empowerment, as 35% of Smith’s shareholding will be in the hands of employees and management of Smith with Isipho holding the remaining 65%. Smith is a level 2 BBBEE company with more than 51% Women Black Ownership and operational involvement. Ms Fortunate Mdanda has been appointed as the CEO of Smith and one of her main mandates is to ensure participation of black female engineers in Smith’s value chain.  “I will be driving the repositioning Smith in the marketplace with its stakeholders who include amongst others SOE’s, FML’s, OEM’s, Dealerships, Government, Truck Body Builders, Mining, Construction and End Users; says Ms Fortunate Mdanda.

The Germiston head-quartered company has a South African footprint through its regional representation of own and outsourced service centres and seeks to grow in Africa by exporting proudly South African products and also focusing on increasing its basket of locally and imported products to its customers. The company boasts a highly experienced engineering and management staff compliment of 80 employees and has the largest number of LMI’s directly employed by a single company in South Africa.
About Isipho Capital Holdings.

Isipho Capital is a small private equity company which earlier this year, acquired 100% of Kholeka Engineering (Pty) Ltd (“Kholeka”), a truck body and trailer manufacturing business based in KZN. This acquisition of Smith will allow the two businesses to extract synergies and be in a position to offer a one stop solution to the marketplace whilst maintaining their independent identities and market positioning. “We are excited about the acquisition as it further entrenches our support and commitment to the manufacturing sector”, said Sipho Mdanda, CEO of Isipho Capital Holdings.