SANTAM’s search for profits outside SA, driven by stagnant growth at home and a weak rand, has led it straight into fraud in Rwanda, resulting in the Rwandan company’s CEO being replaced.It has also resulted in considerable downward adjustments to Santam’s investment portfolio, negatively affecting its results for the half-year to June.The short-term insurer disclosed a R46m reduction in the value of its investment in Soras Assurance Generales, a Kigali-based insurer, along with other downward adjustments totalling R76m as one of the factors that saw its investment income fall to R555m, from R767m in the six months to June.Santam adjusted the value of the Soras investment — which it bought in 2014 for $24.3m, together with parent Sanlam’s emerging markets unit — after uncovering financial irregularities relating to prior years. "We experienced deliberate misrepresentation of financial results in the business," Santam CEO Lizé Lambrechts said."We are taking appropriate actions."She s...
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