Key Liberty insider on the loose

19 April 2015 - 02:00 By THEKISO ANTHONY LEFIFI

Towards the end of this year, Liberty's former CEO Bruce Hemphill will go head to head with his successor, Thabo Dloti, for a bigger slice of the African insurance pie when he takes the reins at Old Mutual. This week's announcement that Hemphill will replace Julian Roberts underlines the fact that it's a year of big change at South Africa's insurance giants. Ian Kirk is scheduled to take over from Johan van Zyl at Sanlam.It's a world where everyone knows everyone: Kirk was joint CEO at Capital Alliance, when Hemphill's Liberty acquired it. He left in 2006, the same year that Hemphill replaced Myles Ruck as Liberty CEO.The African market is clearly the big prize.Nicholas Kruger, the CEO of MMI - which incorporates Metropolitan and Momentum - has also set his sights on conquering the continent's insurance sector.PwC says the four big insurance companies - Sanlam, Liberty, Old Mutual and MMI - get an average of 10% of their new business from the rest of Africa. There is evidently scope to push this up.Analysts regarded Hemphill's appointment as a "welcome surprise", but some of his former colleagues at Simmons Street, the headquarters of Liberty's majority shareholder, Standard Bank, are probably less enthusiastic.Hemphill is well versed in Liberty's pan-African strategy.It is intellectual capital he can now apply at Old Mutual, which has already spent R3.6-billion of the R5-billion it earmarked for expansion in Africa. Old Mutual has threemillion customers in the rest of Africa - a number it aims to triple to 10million by 2020, says PwC.However, many insiders expected Paul Hanratty, Old Mutual's chief operating officer, to get the top job.Chris Steward, head of equity research at Investec Asset Management, said the timing of the announcement was "slightly curious" as there was no indication that Roberts would step down any time soon.But Old Mutual said Hemphill's appointment was not sudden; "it is part of an orderly succession plan". Roberts will be 60 in 2017 and previously said he would step down about then, but events have obviously overtaken him.Another one who may feel unlucky to have missed out is Ralph Mupita, the CEO of Old Mutual's South African business, who some believed could have been bumped up.Hemphill is a banker at heart. He first joined Standard Merchant Bank's corporate finance division in 1997, and four years later became MD of SCMB Securities. Four years later, he was appointed CEO of asset manager Stanlib.He knows a thing or two about adversity, too, being an integral part of operations when Jacko Maree, then CEO of Standard Bank, fought off a hostile bid from Nedbank in 2000.Nedbank, of course, is owned by Old Mutual - and the bad blood between the two banks hasn't yet evaporated. At Nedbank, the notion that their former foe will now be their ultimate boss probably isn't altogether comfortable.Corridor talk is that Hemphill will bring in his own trusted team, which means some Old Mutual executives may jump ship before they are pushed.Hemphill did not want to discuss his plans for Old Mutual. Surprisingly, he remains in Liberty's offices - even though his announcement as CEO of a rival has been announced."I am still employed by Standard Bank. I have to serve my notice period and a restricted period," he said.Graeme Korner, founder of Korner Perspective, said Hemphill might have accepted the Old Mutual job, because he had been out of Standard Bank's "mother ship" for a while, and the key roles at the bank were already spoken for...

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