Alexander Forbes Group said its shareholders have approved the request of African Rainbow Capital to acquire 10% of its wholly-owned subsidiary Alexander Forbes Limited,
In a statement issued by Alexander Forbes, the deal does not include all businesses outside of Africa. The deal was finalised for net proceeds of ZAR678 million which according to the company has been settled in cash.
Investment in AFL accelerates Alexander Forbes’s vision to continue to build a globally distinctive pan-African financial services organisation.Investment enhances Alexander Forbes’s B-BBEE credentials at the ownership level.
Alexander Forbes Group said Mercer Africa Limited, its largest shareholder, supports the investment by African Rainbow Capital.
Andrew A Darfoor, the Group Chief Executive, ”Going forward, the focus will be on conducting extensive market segmentation and research to better enable us to create solutions that address our customer needs throughout their life journey across retirement, financial planning, wealth creation and protection, and financial risk management. This is the concept we stand behind in providing trusted advice to secure our clients’ financial well-being,” says Darfoor.
Johan van Zyl, the co-CEO of ARC welcomed the approval of the transaction by Alexander Forbes shareholders, describing it as a landmark investment by ARC which has a 10- to 20-year vision to build a South African base and expand into the rest of Africa.
“For us, investing in Alexander Forbes is key to executing on that vision since the group is a recognised market leader in South Africa and selected markets in Africa,” he added.
Alexander Forbes is a specialised financial services group headquartered in South Africa focusing on employee benefits solutions for institutional clients, and financial well-being and retail financial solutions for individual clients, in particular employees of the group’s institutional clients.
