Imperial plans to separately list its leasing and capital equipment division, a substantial asset, in May.

Bruce Whitfield:
Well, details emerging late this afternoon of Imperial's plans to separately list its leasing and capital equipment division, it is going to call it Eqstra Holdings, and that listing is planned for the 12th of May 2008. Tak Hiemstra, executive director at Imperial, joins us now and this is, I suppose Tak, the evolution of the strategy that was being spelt out at your latest results announcement.

Tak Hiemstra:
Yes, exactly Bruce, we referred to and actually announced it quite clearly at our results announcement.

Bruce Whitfield:
Remind us what exactly is within Eqstra, which is a novel name, is it a long-standing name incidentally?

Tak Hiemstra:
No, it is a new name that has been formed for the business.

Bruce Whitfield:
Has it got any particular meaning or does it just sound nice?

Tak Hiemstra:
It is really sound bites; it is hard to find a name that hasn't been taken already.

Bruce Whitfield:
Exactly - so in that is Imperial Fleet services, the flexi-fleet, Safcon industrial equipment, there are quite a lot of companies that we regard as core to Imperial which Imperial no longer regards as core to it in this new listing.

Tak Hiemstra:
This unbundling is not done to rid the company off non-core assets. The reasoning for this unbundling is that this is a more capital intensive business than the rest of our businesses and it is for that reason that we find it necessary to separate it from the Imperial balance sheet. It has always been core to the business but it is now core to the business of Eqstra, it is not something which Imperial said we don't like any more, our shareholders will still retain their interest in Eqstra and it is a mechanism to improve the gearing capacity of both companies Imperial as well as Eqstra.

Bruce Whitfield:
We saw Barloworld undertake a number of unbundlings and sales of assets, this is part of a broader Imperial strategy; are there going to be further unbundlings from Imperial or is this the big one?

Tak Hiemstra:
No Bruce, we don't anticipate any further unbundlings.

Bruce Whitfield:
So the Imperial that we will see into the future, what will that be made up of?

Tak Hiemstra:
It will consist of our combined motor retail operations and that consists of our motor dealerships, our motor distributorships as well as our insurance businesses which are related financial services businesses to the motor business as well our interest in Imperial Bank that is the one part of it. The second pillar is Imperial car rental, which is being rebranded to Europecar at the moment, and the third part is our logistics business that consists of our South African transport and warehousing and supply chain business as well as our European logistics business.

Bruce Whitfield:
So it is a distinctly different business into the future. When you look at Eqstra, what do you anticipate the market value will be of Eqstra?

Tak Hiemstra:
Bruce, it would be an estimation. It would depend on, one can value it on a price to book basis, you can value it on a PE basis and I'm going to give you a broad range because I don't want to forecast. The broad range would be between R4.5-billion and maybe R6.5-billion.

Bruce Whitfield:
That is a substantial business.

Tak Hiemstra:
It is a very substantial business; it is actually our largest profit contributor at the last release of results.

Bruce Whitfield:
Is this, and again, just to try and understand this fully, not potentially shooting the future Imperial in the foot by taking out what are very lucrative assets from the business? You have explained that they are capital intensive but they have been great performers.

Tak Hiemstra:
This is certainly a fine asset but our shareholders will still retain the asset so Imperial itself will be left with its three main pillars that I just described, yes we are losing a very fine asset which has always been very good for us, but if you look at it from a shareholder perspective they just get a choice to invest in either or in both of the assets, they are getting an asset that is better funded, more appropriately funded and geared, and they are getting a more sharper focused Imperial business and a sharper focused leasing and capital equipment business as we now call it Eqstra.

Bruce Whitfield:
Tak Hiemstra, thank you very much indeed, executive director at Imperial.