Motus sells cars it does not build, and for a while that looked like the exposed position: cheap Chinese brands were taking share while Motus held the exclusive South African rights to Hyundai, Kia, Renault and Mitsubishi. So it stopped defending the position and started stocking the competition.
The switch shows up hardest at home. Sales of Chinese and Indian brands through the South African business grew by more than 200% last year, with the Chinese brands alone up more than 300% in the United Kingdom and 44% in Australia. Rebuilding showrooms to hold them is not cheap. R63 million went into the Garsfontein dealership so it could carry Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo under one roof.
Why the profit moved and the revenue did not
Revenue is a poor guide to how this year went. It rose 1% to R113.6 billion, which reads as a business standing still, while the South African operation sold 12% more new vehicles than the year before. The gap between the two is what people bought: the growth landed in affordable brands and models, helped along by the interest rate cuts of 2025 and more first-time buyers coming into the market.
What actually lifted profit was the debt. Motus used its cash to pay borrowings down, and the interest bill fell by nearly a fifth. Money that does not go to lenders drops almost straight through, which is why profit before tax rose 20%, to just over R4 billion, while the top line sat still. Attributable profit ended the year at R2.98 billion.
The rights it has been collecting
The other half of the strategy is upstream of the showroom. Motus has taken exclusive distribution rights for GWM, Omoda, Jaecoo, Changan and Dongfeng in East Africa, and for Tata in South Africa, where the Indian brand is averaging about 600 sales a month since coming back. The group expects Indian brands to gain ground here the way the Chinese ones already have.
Shareholders got the rest. The board declared a final dividend of 410 cents a share, payable on 5 October, which takes the year's total to 710 cents and lifts the slice of headline earnings paid out to two fifths. Dividends and buybacks together returned R1.9 billion over the twelve months.
Management expects revenue to grow in the mid single digits next year, and reckons South Africans will buy between 630 000 and 650 000 new vehicles this calendar year.
