/ 8 July 1994

The Banking Bureaucrat

Shakeup in Finance: Ex Nedcor CE takes over from Keys

Very much the professional banker, Chris Liebenberg is now in the spotlight. Reg Rumney reports on the former Nedcor chief executive

A SURPRISING if reasonable choice to replace Derek Keys, Finance Minister designate Chris Liebenberg, 60, is described by one fellow banker no less as “a rather grey individual”.

The same man hastens to comment on his undoubted integrity and capability. Ex-chief executive of the Nedcor group, Liebenberg attracts the epithets “solid”, “likeable”, and “professional”, as well as “colourless”.

Another banker calls him a “banking bureaucrat”.

Perhaps Liebenberg is unfortunate in stepping into the shoes of so formidable a personality as Keys, who would always have been a hard act to follow.

Yet the finance minister, particularly in this period where overseas markets are looking at South Africa with a critical, if not sceptical eye, is in the spotlight almost as much as the president himself.

If a banker was the first choice for the job, the industry might have settled on Standard Bank’s Conrad Strauss, and outgoing and forceful, not to say imposing, personality rather than Liebenberg.

While not as unconventional or as well known as Keys, Liebenberg is certainly as popular and probably enjoys greater “political” credibility than Keys had as chief of mining house Gencor.

As head of Nedcor he was one of the first business leaders to involve himself in the Consultative Business Movement.

“He has been into the New South Africa for a long time,” says a source involved in one of South Africa’s many negotiating forums.

“He will have the same kind of diplomatic skills as Keys. He’s very much a consensus man.”

The Perm, part of the Nedcor group, is the only institution to have a big exposure to the black home-loans market.

“To talk about charisma is unfair,” says stockbroker Frankel Kruger’s David Shapiro.

“He hasn’t got the same superstar status as Keys, but he did a very solid job at Nedcor. Together with Stals he will maintain the kind of discipline they need. You’ve got to give him a chance.”

Like Keys, Liebenberg is a strong advocate of market-oriented policies linked to fiscal and monetary discipline. He is also said to be a “Stals man”.

The lingering doubt is whether he will be as firm as Keys in pursuing his fiscal aims, and will not be more easily influenced.

Born on October 2 1934, Liebenberg retired from Nedcor this year after 42 years with the banking group. He became MD of Nedbank in 1988, and chief executive of Nedcor on the unexpected departure of Piet Liebenberg, to whom he is not related, in 1990.

Liebenberg summed up his philosophy in an early interview once as, “You will reap whatever you sow,” and described his management style as that of “delegation and control.”

The same interview showed the glimmer of a sense of humour, if not political correctness, in that Liebenberg described his “likes” as “quality, expertise, professionalism … and pretty girls.”

Married to Elly, he has two children, Andre and Deon.