STEPHEN CRANSTON: Still a long way to go from the first forays into empowerment
Asset managers should be the net beneficiary of new voluntary retirement funds scorecard
Has the black economic empowerment (BEE) process — speeded up by the Financial Sector Charter — been a success? In fact, it was a process started about 10 years before the 2002 Financial Sector Summit, with the late Sanlam chairman Marinus Daling selling control of Metropolitan Life (Metlife) to a consortium headed by the respected physician and activist Nthato Motlana. Of all the assets Sanlam owned, it made least sense to sell Metlife. Later Sanlam CEO Johan van Zyl said Daling had "sold the future" as Metlife operates in the growing mass market. There is no doubt that the consortium, later the listed New Africa Investments (Nail), would have taken an interest in other Sanlam-controlled businesses — Alexander Forbes was controlled by the Bellville giant at the time. The Sanlam-Nail deal set the template for BEE financial deals. It was closely replicated by Anglo American in its deal to cede control of African Life (Aflife) to Real Africa. These deals certainly made headlines, but ...
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