Motsa adds Carson Group to his businesses

This was revealed by Motsa and the seller, Carlos Paiva during a press conference at the Carson Centre, yesterday.

Previously, Motsa had a 50 per cent shareholding while the rest was held by the Paiva family. Ironically, Motsa sold three of his properties the Enterprise Building, Hyper Building and Big Tree Complex to SWAKI, recently.

Motsa explained that there would be no effective changes because he had been part of the company dating back to 2009.

"The only change will be the transfer of shares," Motsa said when asked if the workers would be entitled to terminal benefits due to the change of ownership.

He assured that there would be no job losses.

Motsa also said he would not change the name of the company which houses car dealerships such as BMW, Madza, Ford, Tata and Cherly.

Outgoing owner, Paiva said Motsa would probably appoint a new managing director within the company or employ someone externally.

Before Motsa addressed the media, Paiva explained that they had to sell the business because of prevailing economical challenges.

He said there has been a down- turn in the economy, not only in Swaziland but the world over.

Adding, he said they had been heavily reliant on government, which was unfortunately affected by the global meltdown.

This resulted in government having to downsize its fleet, Paiva said.

"Not only was the Carson Group affected by this sudden turn of events, but the motor industry. We all had to re-strategise. And this has been going on for a while," he said.

The bottom line, Paiva said the company needed capitalisation.

"The company has had a lot of problems in the past three years. We grew too big and too fast.

"Ironically, during that period Motsa approached us. He said he wanted to buy a stake in the business. And that is when we opened the Mbabane branch," he pointed out.

Asked about the purchase price both parties said they would prefer to keep it confidential.

"It’s private and confidential. The sale has nothing to do with figures, but with the decision we took," he said.

However, Paiva described the sale as a willing-buyer-willing-seller scenario.

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