One of the SA transport industry's icons, Bill Lynch, is giving up control at Imperial Holdings. Another icon, the Wessels family, has all but withdrawn from the sector. Super Group, Metair and Grindrod are among companies facing upheaval.

Lynch has spent 36 years at Imperial, 16 as CEO, helping turn it into a JSE giant with assets of more than R40bn. Now 63, he expects to step aside in November to become a nonexecutive chairman. In the year to June 2006, Imperial boasted a turnover of R54bn, a pretax profit of R3,7bn and a net attributable profit of R2,8bn. The group's diverse transport and logistics activities - ranging from barges on the Rhine to car imports, and from tourist transport to banking - has so far rendered it comparatively immune to cyclical and foreign-exchange pressures. Lynch predicts 2006 revenues of R54bn may double by 2010.

Vehicle components manufacturer Metair also predicts strong growth. The company has been associated for 30 years with the Wessels family, which also founded Toyota SA. Wesco, the investment company dominated by the Wessels clan, sold its 39% Metair stake for R591m cash in December. Of that, 32% was bought by Coronation Capital, a subsidiary of Coronation Investments & Trading. The remaining 7% went to the Metair Share Incentive Trust. The sale means Wesco's only substantive shareholding is its 25% in Toyota.

"The inclination and constraints of management of a company with a significant number of conservative family shareholders meant Metair was managed to maintain a strong balance sheet and that, in recent years, only organic growth opportunities were pursued. This has led to an accumulation of cash on the balance sheet and a tendency to sacrifice expansion in favour of security," says Wesco chairman Elisabeth Bradley.

Metair MD Theo Loock says the company is keen to consider acquisitions. In the year to December, revenue grew 23% and headline earnings 27%. "Our objective is to use our balance sheet to pursue opportunities in the SA automotive component manufacturing sector to create sufficient economies of scale to improve our global competitiveness," he says.

With few exceptions, last year was a satisfactory one for transport-related companies, in terms of profits and return on equity and assets. Tiger Wheel had some problems and a predictable exception was Dorbyl, which blames its poor results on the tendency by vehicle manufacturers to source more components from overseas. Turnover, profit and cash reserves all fell. CEO Bill Cooper quit after 11 years in the job, saying it was time for a new team to run the business.

Automotive and supply-chain company Super Group recently issued a cautionary notice amid speculation it is the subject of a takeover bid by a private-equity group.

Grindrod is looking at ways to improve performance. CEO Alan Olivier says unbundling could unlock hidden value.

Shipping company Trencor is considering a foreign listing, though not for the main group. Chairman Neil Jowell says Textainer, its 73%-owned marine container manager, could benefit. Grindrod doesn't need the listing to raise cash, but "Textainer has been looking for acquisitions and it would be easier to pay for these with paper".