EXCLUSIVE: Sanlam chair says he has no influence on Alexander Forbes
Johan van Zyl sits on the same board that has to deliberate on proposed deals between Ubuntu-Botho and Sanlam, which raised concerns of potential conflict of interest
The man in the middle of the controversy between Sanlam, Alexander Forbes and African Rainbow Capital (ARC), says he has no influence on the decisions at these companies. In an interview with Business Day, Sanlam board chairman and ARC co-CEO Johan van Zyl said any notion that ARC was controlling Alexander Forbes was not true. He said he and his co-CEO Johan van der Merwe are key decision-makers at ARC only. Earlier this month a letter written by Van Zyl was leaked to the media. In it, he suggested to the Alexander Forbes board that the pension fund administrator could be better off selling its short-term insurance business to Santam. “To think you can control that thing with a 7% stake at the voting level is absolutely stupid. Of course, we express our views on what should be done as we do with every one of these 40 investments we have,” he said in the interview on Thursday. ARC, however, has an agreement with Alexander Forbes to discuss strategy and budgetary issues. Van Zyl said ...
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