Vunani starting to cast a wider net
Hunt is on for financial services acquisitions in Southern Africa, but focus will be on areas within two hours' flight
Vunani’s earnings are still dominated by its investments, as Anglo American’s BEE partner, in the coal sector. Its private equity investments, predominantly its mining interests, account for about 80% of Vunani’s R90.2m net profit. But Vunani CEO Ethan Dube does not believe these kinds of passive investment holdings will drive the business indefinitely. Vunani has made its first acquisition of a life insurance business, Metropolitan Swaziland, as MMI divests from the rest of Africa. Swazi Bank is a co-shareholder. The book is dominated by funeral policies. "We would love to get hold of their Lesotho and Botswana businesses, though they aren’t for sale yet," says Dube. "MMI Zambia is for sale, but we aren’t keen as it is predominantly a health insurer and you need to be a Discovery to make that work." He says Vunani would not be interested in, say, the Alexander Forbes Uganda business as it would prefer to confine its acquisitions to markets less than two hours’ flight away. He has ...
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