Will Old Mutual come back to SA?

19 April 2015 - 02:00 By BRUCE WHITFIELD

The appointment of former Liberty Group CEO Bruce Hemphill as new CEO of rival Old Mutual this week has left the market guessing about the insurers' intentions. The company, run for most of the past seven years by British-born CEO Julian Roberts and supported by his British compatriot Philip Broadley, will once again be run by three people from sub-Saharan Africa.This announcement was significant as it implies that 15 years after Old Mutual launched its ill-fated R100-billion foray into developed markets in Europe and the US, its focus is now likely to shift back a lot closer to home. This makes sense. Nearly 70% of its profits are still generated on the African continent - 90% of those in South Africa.But whether this means relocating its costly Thames-side HQ to Sandton in a couple of years remains to be seen.Roberts's departure has taken the market by surprise. He was instrumental in pulling the insurer back from the brink of break up in 2008 when US bond exposures threatened the balance sheet, and there were serious questions as to whether he could hold it together.What followed instead was a gradual sell-off of many of the businesses in the US and Europe which were bought amid the exuberance of the London listing nearly 15 years ago.Roberts's departure implies another change in strategy.Hemphill will be the first SA-born CEO at Old Mutual since Mike Levitt, under whose watch the company embarked on a costly global expansion.Hemphill will be supported by finance director Ingrid Johnson, until recently the head of retail banking at Nedbank.The future of Paul Hanratty, the chief operating officer many observers thought was the CEO-in-waiting, has not been disclosed. But Hemphill's appointment illustrates just how incestuous the South African insurance sector is.Hemphill was seconded to Liberty from Standard Bank just as his predecessor Myles Ruck.Hemphill's successor at Liberty was Thabo Dloti, who was once touted as a potential CEO of Old Mutual SA (OMSA). Dloti, however, left OMSA after the board briefly appointed former Anglo executive Kuseni Dlamini to the top spot at OMSA. Dloti joined and stabilised asset manager Stanlib and subsequently took over from Hemphill, who now takes over at Old Mutual.It doesn't end there. CEO at Old Mutual till 2008, Jim Sutcliffe has also been a nonexecutive director at Liberty since 2009. Ian Kirk, recently appointed to run Sanlam when CEO Johan van Zyl retires at the end of the year, was CEO of Capital Alliance, when Liberty bought it under Ruck.Kirk became deputy CEO, but left to run Santam when Hemphill was leapfrogged into the top job...

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