- Asher Bohbot came to South Africa for a two-week holiday at the age of 27 and never left, eventually building one of the largest IT companies in the country.
- His company grew from a one-client operation to a JSE-listed business worth R2.6 billion
- The story of how a chance meeting on a Johannesburg bus set everything in motion is one of the most unexpected business origin stories SA has ever seen.
Source: YouTube
Asher Bohbot was born in Morocco, grew up in Israel, and earned a chemical engineering degree from Ben-Gurion University. At age 27, a friend suggested they travel South Africa Together. The friend backed out at the last moment, but Bohbot still boarded the plane.
He knew almost nothing about the country and had no plans for more than a two-week sightseeing trip.
during your first week johannesburgHe boarded a bus to visit a museum and met a woman from Israel whom he recognized. He went home with him, and after a while, a visitor arrived who was in South Africa to recruit engineers.
bohbot Went for the interview, took the job, and what was a short stint at PG Bison turned into 17 years, where he eventually became the executive director.
Asher Bohbot's business idea at 3 am
After years in the corporate world, Bohbot became restless. He could see that South African businesses needed IT support but he found the whole situation overwhelming.
One day at 3 in the morning an idea came to his mind. He grabbed a pen and sketched exactly what he thought Business Can work, which will design, build and operate IT systems for other companies. That portrait 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 his former employer PG Bison. EOH was listed on the JSE in April 1998, and by 2009, its revenues had exceeded R1 billion.
The company eventually grew into a R2.6 billion operation, employing over 8,000 people in South Africa and 29 other countries.
Asher Bohbot's Fall and comeback
EOH came under serious scrutiny after reports of alleged corruption surfaced in 2017 Government Contract.
An executive was implicated in a bribery scandal, Bohbot stepped down, and the company's share price fell from R171 to under R50.
To repay the R4.1 billion loan, EOH sold key 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 salary. 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 kids that I had before I started EOH.”
Source: YouTube
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Source: News in Brief