Overview | Peotona Group Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Preparing the ground

The what, when, and who, of our company

PGH is a uniquely South African story of success. For over 15 years, it has demonstrated the power of its founders‘ idea: that it takes a community to raise a business. It hasn’t been an easy journey, but every day PGH grew better at what it did and how it operated, led by the four directors who have personally driven all Trusts and initiatives with partner companies.

The four women founders proved that they could succeed and thrive at the levels of their male colleagues. Their personal experience of having to overcome significant hurdles in a man’s world gave them compassion, resilience and a new perspective as to the role of business within society. And the four founders proved that effective corporate social responsibility isn’t just a cost of doing business, but instead is integral to the success of any business.

The Peotona Structure

Our Company consists of two equally important components:

Peotona Group Holdings, which houses our for-profit business investments
Peotona Development NPC, a Not-for-Profit Company.

Our transactions have resulted in more than 60% of Peotona Group Holdings’ investments being placed either directly into Peotona Development, or into aligned bespoke Trusts as preferred by our investee partners. Most of our larger transactions are structured so that over two-thirds of earnings are ringfenced to the benefit of communities adjacent to the asset. No other investment company has achieved this level.

Our relationships have secured highly skilled, professional, business and NGO partners.

Our work
These investments:

contribute positively to the social transformation of SA, and
enable improvement to Investee Company Scorecard for Codes of Best Practices

Significant percentage of each investment placed directly into Non-Profit company/bespoke trust

We reach for the light

Yet never lose the forest that nurtures us

PGH works with the core belief that business has a critical role to play in the country’s social transformation. We understand that our bottom lines are dependent upon the growth of employees and their communities. It is the only way that South Africa will escape from the disgraceful honor of having the highest Gini coefficient in the world. The current, enormous gap between the “haves” and the ”have nots” predicts an unsustainable future for all South African businesses. Therefore, development programmes for employees and their communities are a critical, and, non-negotiable part of any organisation /operation – this informs our investment strategy and our transformation agenda.

Not business as usual

Our business philosophy

We couple our diverse, extensive experience with our deep, broad networks to enable companies to:

unearth new areas of profitable growth
surface more cost-effective and diverse suppliers
redeploy companies’ CSI programmes to align with the Peotona-Trust activity, providing additional value for adjacent communities. These initiatives,
sit within the business strategy of the organisation and are overseen by a dedicated Peotona director.

Through all Trusts and initiatives, we are committed to broad-based empowerment with a focus on those historically overlooked within the business world: women, those with disabilities and those from previously disadvantaged communities.The Peotona approach proves that sustainable, profitable businesses in South Africa require attention to the employees and their communities, not just to the profit line but to sustainability. This means long-term capability development with an organisation’s employees, within their communities and within their local governments.

The Peotona Board

Thandi Orleyn

Chair of :
bp Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd
Tokiso Dispute Settlement (Pty) Ltd
Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd

Board member of:
Toyota SA (Pty) Ltd
Industrial Development Corporation of SA Ltd (‘the IDC’)
DBCM Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Wendy Lucas-Bull

Chair of :
Shoprite Holdings (Pty) Ltd

Board member of:
Afrika Tikkun NPC
The Millennium Labour Council
Lifeco Unltd SA
JSE Empowerment Fund (Trustee)

Cheryl Carolus

Chair of :
Grindrod (Pty) Ltd

Board member of:
DBCM Holdings (Pty) Ltd
De Beers Consolidated Mines (Pty) Ltd
Netclinic (Pty) Ltd
Ash Resources (Pty) Ltd