Editor’s Note
ROB ROSE: Red lights in Habib deal
This could get tricky
So here’s a delicious irony: finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who has locked horns repeatedly with the Guptas this year, will have the final say on whether the family’s business partner, Salim Essa, gets the green light to buy Habib Overseas Bank (HOB) for a rumoured R500m. Speculation is rife that Essa and his business partner Hamza Farooqui are proxies for the family who, having been axed as clients by SA’s big four banks, are desperate for an alternative banking platform. Kuben Naidoo, the banking registrar in the SA Reserve Bank, told the Financial Mail this week that his office has received the application to buy the bank, but he has yet to approve it. "They have submitted a proposal. We have responded with questions and queries. They are yet to come back to us. So we have not yet begun to consider their request," he says. However, the proposal is for the purchase of more than 50% of HOB’s shares from the UK-based Habib family — which means Gordhan has to OK the deal.
Thi...
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