“I Have the Same Car”: Moroccan Man Uses R800 Loan To Build R2.6 Billion Business in SA

• Asher Bohbot came to South Africa for a two-week holiday at age 27 and never left, eventually building one of the country's biggest IT companies
• His company grew from a one-client operation into a JSE-listed business worth R2.6 billion
• The story of how a chance encounter on a Johannesburg bus set everything in motion is one of the most unexpected business origin stories SA has ever seen

Asher Bohbot was born in Morocco, grew up in Israel, and earned a chemical engineering degree from Ben-Gurion University. At 27, a friend suggested they travel to South Africa together. The friend pulled out at the last minute, but Bohbot got on the plane anyway.

He knew almost nothing about the country and had no plans beyond two weeks of sightseeing.

During his first week in Johannesburg, he hopped on a bus to visit a museum and bumped into a woman he recognised from Israel. He went home with her, and a short while later, a visitor arrived who was in South Africa to recruit engineers.

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Bohbot went for the interview, took the job, and what was meant to be a short stint turned into 17 years at PG Bison, where he eventually became Executive Director.

Asher Bohbot's 3 am business idea

After years in the corporate world, Bohbot grew restless. He could see that South African businesses needed IT support but found the whole situation overwhelming.

One morning at 3 am, an idea hit him. He grabbed a pen and sketched out exactly how he thought a business could work, one that would design, build and operate IT systems for other companies. That drawing still hangs in his office in Bedfordview, Johannesburg.

He started Enterprise Outsourcing Holdings, later known as EOH, with a loan of R800. His first client was PG Bison, his former employer. EOH was listed on the JSE in April 1998, and by 2009, its revenue had crossed R1 billion.

The company eventually grew into a R2.6 billion operation employing over 8,000 people across South Africa and 29 other countries.

Asher Bohbot's fall and the comeback

In 2017, EOH came under serious scrutiny after reports emerged of alleged corruption involving government contracts.

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An executive was implicated in a bribery scandal, Bohbot stepped down, and the company's share price crashed from R171 to under R50.

To clear a R4.1 billion debt, EOH sold off major assets. The company was eventually rebranded as iOCO. By February 2025, two new joint CEOs were appointed on a performance-based pay structure, meaning no fixed salaries. Since then, iOCO's share price has more than doubled.

Bohbot's famous words when asked to describe himself are:

“I have the same car, same wife and same children I had before I started EOH.”

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Source: Briefly News