One thing that is not changing, for better or worse, is Liberty’s relationship with Standard Bank. The bank’s joint CEO, Sim Tshabalala, is very happy with the current level of holding in Liberty at a little over 50%. He is adamant that neither a buyout and delisting, nor an unbundling are being considered. "Growing up, I remember that while Checkers was generic for plastic bag and Colgate for toothpaste, Liberty was generic for life insurance," says Tshabalala. "The bank’s opinion as majority shareholder is that Liberty remains a fundamentally sound business. We remain confident that Liberty’s solvency, dividend security, financial soundness and capacity for long-run profitability, competitiveness and sustainability are not compromised." It was widely speculated that the bank had imposed a 10-point plan on Liberty but Tshabalala says it is just "supporting and assisting" Liberty CEO Thabo Dloti to help the company recover as soon as possible. Both the short-term and long-term plans...
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