Billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC), which failed to secure a spot on the shortlist of buyers for Mercantile Bank, may soon own a bank after all. This time around the mining magnate has a head start through ARC’s 10% share in what could become the fourth bank in two years to go on sale in SA, namely start-up TymeDigital. This follows the on-market sale of Barclays Africa (now Absa) shares over the past two years by its former British parent, Old Mutual’s expected unbundling of Nedbank by year-end and an imminent deal involving Portuguese state-owned business bank, Mercantile. ARC was one of 18 bidders to submit nonbinding offers for Mercantile, but did not make the shortlist of four. Now TymeDigital could be up for grabs — as its 106-year-old parent, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), reviews international operations following an A$700m fine over weak anti-money laundering controls — TymeDigital could be up for grabs. ARC, an investment holding company tha...
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