Motus rides SA vehicle boom as margins surge

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SIMON BROWN: I’m chatting with Ockert Janse van Rensburg. He is Motus CEO. We had results for the six months ending December 2025, which saw revenue up 3%, Heps up 19%, the dividend up 25%.

Ockert, appreciate the time. A really strong period. Notwithstanding cheaper car imports or the like, Motus is doing very well and seeing volumes increase in the local market.

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: Thank you very much, Simon, and glad to talk to you and your listeners.

I think that overall the group has certainly been able to gain from that momentum that we had in 2025 and into our new financial year. You are right, we’ve been able to get good strategic focus and operational discipline to improve those sales volumes. That certainly helped. And, as you were just speaking, I was thinking about SA and how buoyant this market has been. We haven’t had good SA numbers for a while so, if it’s there, you also need to make the most of it and we’ve certainly been able to take advantage of the good conditions we’ve had on the SA vehicle side.

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SIMON BROWN: You do new and pre-owned vehicles. Has there been more strength in one or the other, or has it been sort of across the board, more or less?

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: I think in this last period, the last six months, we haven’t seen such strong vehicle sales on the new side for probably a decade. The new has certainly been the more dominant side, although we also have a big play into the pre-owned.

I’m glad to have been able to report that on the pre-owned, we’ve also increased volumes. So we’ve taken advantage of both sides of the coin there, and pre-owned probably will, in time, come back again. But at the moment, I think new vehicles are certainly what you want to be in.

SIMON BROWN: And how are you managing the competition from the cheap imports, whether it be India, Asia, or wherever that might be? You’ve a lot of traditional brands at the same time. How do you sort of manage that threat?

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: We’ve been able to change our brand representation quite dramatically over the last two years. Where we stand today, we are the importers of some of those more traditional brands like Hyundai, Kia, and Renault. But we’ve also been able to participate in the new emerging brands, the more Chinese-like ones and the Indian. We are also an importer of Tata, which has started in this last six months as well.

So we’ve certainly been able to transition quite aggressively into the more emerging brands. That’s probably why you see the volume still going up quite considerably in the six months, even though we have traditional and now also the emerging brands. I think we play in all parts of the spectrum.

SIMON BROWN: And that’s the strategy there. At group level revenue up 3%, Heps up 19%. At  local level revenue up 7%, operating profit up 22%. A nice increase in margins.

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OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: Yes. The margins are certainly something we are very proud of. I think the revenue number almost doesn’t make sense because it’s only 3%. But obviously that also includes other parts of the business and our international businesses, while they SA revenue has gone up considerably more than that. I think it’s about 8%.

But you’re right. The margin improvement has certainly helped us. Volumes are nice, but if you have a fixed cost base, if you think about dealerships, even in the importer space where you’ve been able to get better margins as exchange rates are working in your favour, you can see that you can actually get better margins out of a business. When the volumes are there, it certainly does drop all the way to the bottom line. As you said, the Heps just missing the 20%, but close enough to it. Overall we’ve been very pleased with the way we’ve been able to reduce our debt position and our net debt Ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation] is suddenly in a very healthy position from where we were maybe two years ago.

SIMON BROWN: Let’s quickly touch on that – and the balance sheet looking really good. Your net debt to Ebitda is 1.5 times; it was 2.1 a year ago. It’s a significant swing. Strong cash flows, reduced interest rates –  everything is helping to really position that balance sheet.

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: Yes, and that is the nice part we’ve in here as well. If you’ve been able to reduce the pressures you had on that balance sheet, it gives you the ability to also grow strongly going forward, and that’s the nice part of it. You can also now focus on other parts of the business that you want to grow. You have the capacity for that.

And shareholders will be pleased that we have increased our dividend quite considerably by 25%.

We’ve had share buybacks during the period, so we’ve had quite a pleased shareholder base today.

SIMON BROWN: Vehicle rental – we hear of record tourist numbers. Are you seeing this in your numbers?

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: Yes. We’ve certainly seen that international tourism is alive and well, specifically in Cape Town. In Cape Town we struggle to get enough vehicles at airport kiosks at present. So probably the strongest piece that’s been growing is international tourism. But also there you have to play across the spectrum.

We’re still very strong in local tourism – the corporate side and also the replacement side for the insurance company. So you try to ensure you keep your fleet as busy as possible during the year. We’re currently sitting at about a 71% utilisation. That’s on an overall basis, which is very good for our business. We normally measure that if you’re over 65%, you’re doing well; at over 70% you are actually doing excellently.

SIMON BROWN: Yes, that is a giant number. South Africa of course is sort of two-thirds of your Ebitda. You’ve the UK business as well. The UK – it was mixed. There were some good parts to it, but still my sense is probably more tough than easy there.

OCKERT JANSE VAN RENSBURG: Yes. The UK economy seems to be in a difficult position. You do find, if you look, at the moment business confidence is not that great in the UK. But it’s also one of those bigger economies and I think over time there is quite a reliable number that we can still get. If you look at your aftermarket parts business there, it’s a very defensive piece, still increasing operating profit even though it’s just marginal. But I think in time to come it will probably turn around again and it’s just toughing it out.

I always say that the South African guys are maybe a bit tougher than the UK guys who are not used to tough times. But I think long term it will still be a good play for us. It’s a strong business, reliable. And we’re quite big into fleet there. We had some fleet deals that were deferred, and hopefully those will come through later in this calendar year.

SIMON BROWN: Ockert Janse van Rensburg, Motus CEO, I appreciate the time.

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