In a clear strategy shift, insurer Liberty has pulled the plug on its planned acquisition in Nigeria in order to focus on its South African operations. This was revealed by CEO David Munro when he and chief financial officer Yuresh Maharaj presented the company's year-end results on Friday. Liberty, however, remains in a difficult position, with a lacklustre performance in South Africa and an African business that is not delivering. "We've brought the focus back to South Africa [and] terminated the intended acquisition in Nigeria. That might sound like just a point but it's a huge point," he said. "It's signalled to everyone that I'm not going to buy a thing." Munro said Liberty's attempt to acquire a 75% stake in a Nigerian long-term insurer had distracted management from its core business. Munro's turnaround strategy includes growing the margins on new business in the range of 1% and 1.5%, to grow embedded value by at least 12%, to improve return on equity in the range of 15% to 1...
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