/ 3 April 1998

Looking to the rest of Africa

Wally Lambert and Charlene Smith : Share World

Top-performing redevelopment share African Harvest is looking to list in Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania and will at a later stage seek a banking licence with Coronation Holdings.

African Harvest is one of three companies listed in the redevelopment sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the most vigorous.

The other redevelopment players are the South African Empowerment Trust and private equity fund Umbono Investment Corporation.

The trust – it also has ties with Coronation – presently has a shareprice of about R1,30 after listing at R1,01 on November 12, while Umbone currently trades at about R2,30.

African Harvest listed in October last year with R1,2-billion in assets, half of it put up by unions, with an opening shareprice of R5. In six months it has more than trebled that shareprice, started making acquisitions, poached some of the brightest brains in the financial services sector and started developing a clearer form.

Leon Campher, CEO of African Harvest, was seconded from Coronation Holdings, where he is a director, to build African Harvest “into a major company”. It is currently listed under the redevelopment sector, but Campher says it will “probably later look to list under banks and financial services, and seek a bank licence with Coronation.”

He recently poached one of the most innovative teams in the financial services sector from Southern Life: the Futuregrowth team of Michael Leeman, Lance Katz and Butana Khoza.

Futuregrowth grew out of Leeman’s postgraduate thesis and R90-million in start-up from Southern Life, and in three years it has grown to R2,2-billion in managed assets.

African Harvest announced recently that it had taken a 10% stake in Paradigm Interactive Media in a R26-million deal, with an option of nine million more shares in June if Paradigm puts more on issue.

Campher says that African Harvest Asset Management is in place to manage the empowerment fund. They are also putting together Namibian Harvest, which will list in June in Namibia only.

It will replicate African Harvest’s 50% black holding with unions in Namibia, and they are already talking to potential partners in Tanzania and Botswana to do something similar.

Says Campher: “A lot of people have gone into Africa, but not with the right approach.” He believes strong partnerships and a good product are essential to build solid bases in Africa.

The group has established African Harvest Finance and African Harvest Securities, which will fall under the control of the former Futuregrowth team.