Ferial Haffajee
‘Steady as he goes.” The seafarer’s motto has served Don Ncube well, and next month this captain of industry steers his ship into new seas. In June he will list Real Africa Durolink, an investment bank of which he owns 37%.
These banks are all the rage in this age of mergers, acquisitions and empowerment deals. Real Africa Durolink is notable not only because of its classy client list, but also because it is only the second investment bank with significant black ownership. The other is Nthato Motlana’s African Merchant Bank.
Ncube’s keen social conscience is well known, and he recently queried the slow transfer of wealth. “Where is the post-apartheid dividend?” he asked.
Now Ncube will do something to pay out that dividend by making it easier for black shareholders to buy into the bank. He has decided not to buy up the shares available to his holding company – 37% – but to make these available to shareholders, which include stokvels, trade unions and black business dons.
That’s quite a gift, because they can be bought at the listing price of R4 a share when it’s widely held that the share price will climb much higher.
Already the price of shares in Ncube’s Real Africa Holdings have gone up as investors rush to buy. The bank hopes to raise R400-million through the listing.
A slice of the bank will also be available to ordinary people who may otherwise not be able to invest in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, via a deal similar to Johnnic’s Ikageng scheme or M-Net’s Phutuma Trust.
The new bank comes with a pedigree as a top deal-maker – last year it closed transactions worth more than R2-billion. Recently it helped stitch together the merger of NBS and Boland banks, as well as the privatisation of Sun Air and Safcol.
The bank also has a private equity fund which invests in unlisted companies with potential. The hand of the canny Ncube is clear in its investment plan: it supports companies working in areas where the economy is growing.
The bank’s knowledge of privatisation will become a niche as more companies are sold off by the state. Real Africa Durolink wants a strong presence in Southern Africa, where privatisation deals like Zambia’s sale of its copper mines are set to dominate regional economies.
The listing of Real Africa Durolink could finally grant Ncube’s wish that his companies are regarded not as black businesses, but just as fine businesses.