Vodacom’s mainstay CEO Shameel Joosub has backed the group’s business case, investing millions of rand buying the group’s shares.
The company, in its annual report published on Friday before its AGM set for July, said Joosub had made a big personal investment in the group’s stock since taking over as CEO in 2012.
“The CEO’s LTI [long-term incentives] awards remain very competitive, noting that his current award eligibility reflects his substantial co-investment in Vodacom shares since his appointment as CEO (he now holds 1,234,503 Vodacom shares amounting to a personal investment of more than R114m),” the company said.
The telecom major’s long-term incentives are aimed at retaining key skills and motivating executives and select employees over the long term, “which is essential for sustainable performance”.
After joining the group in 1994, Joosub has held several executive roles over the years, including that of MD at Vodacom SA and CEO at Vodafone Spain.
The group’s remuneration report shows Joosub’s total remuneration for the 2024 financial year was marginally down at 4% to R61.7m.
The total pay of the company’s CFO, Raisibe Morathi, increased 6.2% to R30.1m. The group, majority owned by British telecom supermajor Vodafone, said it had paid R10bn in salaries to its 13,600 workforce in the year.
Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, chair of the group’s remuneration committee, said the company continued to monitor local, regional and global remuneration trends, as well as institutional investor and stakeholder requirements to ensure proactive adaptation of its remuneration policy and practices.
“Our remuneration structures are consistent with our pay for performance principles and commitment to align with shareholder value creation. These structures remain stable despite ongoing local and global uncertainty and related business and societal challenges,” Mahanyele-Dabengwa said.
“We again received high support from shareholders for our remuneration practices and governance, with a vote of more than 99% on our [2023 financial year] remuneration policy and implementation report, and 99.9% for the increase in our non-executive directors’ fees.”
The group, valued at about R195bn on the JSE, reported robust results in the year under review. Group revenue surged 26.4% to R151bn. Financial services revenue shot up 32.2% to R13bn.
The company, which has more than 200-million subscribers, generated operating free cash flow of R30.3bn, up 20.7%, having invested R20.4bn into capital expenditure.
The group said that in this financial year it had introduced a new talent framework to allow it to recognise a larger population of employees with the potential for bigger, more complex roles and to better differentiate between types of potential.
“This will also enable the business to provide tailored and value-adding development support to these employees. This change also included the identification of employees with critical skills.”
Partnerships
Joosub in his letter to shareholders said the company intended to expand its partnerships across Africa to power the group’s growth, and drive infrastructure sharing to increase rural and fibre connectivity.
“In the year ahead, we will focus on finishing strong to meet our Vision 2025 targets and developing the group’s next strategic phase to support our TechCo transition. Over the medium term, we will focus on four major imperatives to position the business for sustained growth: amplifying our commitment to purpose and customers, excelling at simplicity, innovating for growth, and continuing our TechCo transition,” he said.
“Core to this strategy will be accelerating mobile and fixed connectivity, scaling handset financing and the rollout of our innovative digital and financial services in all our markets.”
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