4Sight left to right Eric van der Merwe Group CFO Willie Ackerman Group CSMO and Tertius Zitzke Group CEO.

Technology group 4Sight Holdings is buoyed by African possibilities, after the Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed investment company reported double-digit growth in profit, revenue and cash in full year performance.

In late March, 4Sight reported double-digit growth in all key metrics while crediting its channel partner unit for buoyant performance in the year ended December 2022.

4Sight – which, through its subsidiaries, invests in technology and telecommunications – has had a strong showing in the past three consecutive years, and now plans to broaden returns through expansion into Africa.

In the year, the company's channel partner division continued to experience strong revenue growth, reaching nearly 800 partners across its African markets.

“It’s a solid business,” Tertius Zitzke, 4Sight Holdings Group CEO, tells ITWeb Africa in an interview.

“People ask us ‘what is the risk of doing business in Africa?’ For us, it (business) is always growing. We haven’t even written off any of our turnover in Africa. It is good, solid business.”

He adds: “I think (just) like anything, the biggest success factor is that we stuck to our strategy, we didn’t change.”

Zitzke says there is increasing enthusiasm for 4Sight’s growth across Africa, a journey the company embarked on 15 years ago.

The unit is now bringing the lion’s share of group revenue at 35%. Zitzke says the company is looking at swelling this figure in the near future as it plans to roll-out new services in its markets.

“The dual direct and indirect channel market strategy we implemented in the 2020 financial year continues to deliver strong results,” explains Willie Ackerman, chief sales and marketing officer, 4Sight Holdings. “As a consequence, we remain committed to this approach and will leverage this proven strategy to expand further into the markets.”

Turning to the overall group performance, Zitzke says 4Sight sidestepped a challenging economic environment created by South Africa’s power crisis, continuous interest and exchange rate hikes, to score well on all key metrics.

In the year, 4Sight’s revenue increased 20.7%, gross profit rose 10.1%, and operating profit grew by 93.9%.

This, Zitzke notes, is due to the increased revenue, coupled with improved productivity, governance and control processes, as well as ‘cost containment that saw operating expenses increase by just 4% in a high inflationary environment’.

He adds: “Our ability to keep operating expense escalations below inflation demonstrates the continued commitment from the board of directors and executive committee to manage the company prudently in a challenging macroeconomic environment.”

On other key metrics measured in the year, 4Sight increased its headcount by 20%, equating to 69 staff to reach 416 in total.

4Sight has now employed 48 graduates who were enrolled in the 2022 graduate programme.

“We expect businesses in every sector will continue investing in digital transformation to re-invent and improve operations as technology has become a core strategic foundation and serves as a key determinant of organisational survival and success,” says Zitzke.

“As such, we see massive potential for our solutions in the market, particularly in addressing the various challenges businesses face. We therefore remain confident in our ability to continue growing the business into 2023 and beyond,” he says.