Alexander Forbes begins a five-year journey
It is important to get the right people on the bus, says CEO, and the mix of skills among employees is improving
It is not surprising that Alexander Forbes points the market towards the normalised operating profit over the year to March. At a 5% increase to R986m, it is an improvement on the 1% increase the year before. The accounting profit, though, was down 80% to R327m, after several write-offs — R317m from AF Life alone — and a hefty 50% effective tax rate. Not that there weren’t some good trading results. There was a 20% increase in the profit of the core retirement division. The umbrella fund, in spite of increased competition, with Allan Gray entering the market and Discovery coming in a few weeks, increased membership by 12% to 352,000. In the short term the decision to bring its asset manager Investment Solutions in-house and rename it Alexander Forbes Investments is paying off and profit, which had been stagnating, was up 29% to R398m. It increased the overall margin by bringing in alternative investments in housing development and infrastructure. And it launched an income-focused pr...
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