Nedcor (NED) chairperson Chris Liebenberg has scotched speculation that the banking group’s charismatic CEO Richard Laubscher had been “pushed out”, saying that he had wanted to leave some time ago but had been persuaded to stay on.
He said Laubscher, who announced his intention on Monday to step down as CEO and as a director of the country’s biggest banking group before the end of the year, had indicated as early as 1999 that he wanted to vacate his role.
“Richard indicated to me even before we started the Standard Bank bid that he wanted to step down. But I persuaded him to stay until after the bid,” Liebenberg, a former South African finance minister, said.
“He raised the issue again just before the BoE merger, but again I persuaded him to remain on until the BoE merger was successfully concluded,” Liebenberg stated, adding that the merger process had now reached a stage where Laubscher could finally leave.
“It’s obviously a sad day when we say goodbye to a person who has been with the company for 32 years. As chief executive of Nedcor for the past ten years Richard has led Nedcor’s strategic drive to participate in banking consolidation and has grown Nedcor from being the smallest of the big four banks to a bank of significant scale matching its major competitors. Richard has been a charismatic and popular leader of the over 24 000 employees in the Nedcor group.
“From that point of view we will miss him.”
Liebenberg added that the group hoped to appoint a successor within the next month.
“We’re going through the interview process at the moment and have a short-list of suitable successors which include possible successors from within the group as we ass external candidates.
“It will obviously take a while but I’m hopeful that the process will be finalised within the next month,” he said.
“Timing is absolutely critical to ensure that we can have a proper induction while Richard is still with us,” he added.
Asked whether Laubscher could become chairperson of Nedcor, Liebenberg, who plans to step down himself next year, responded: “He might well do.”
But he explained in terms of corporate governance he would have to wait three years before he could become chairperson.
“But I have no doubt he would make a great chairman,” Liebenberg added.
Laubscher (52) led the group through its failed hostile bid for Standard Bank three years ago and then faced severe market criticism when details of a lucrative Nedcor stock-option scheme tied to the Dimension Data share price emerged. He also steered the group through its successful R7-billion acquisition of BoE last year.
He has also found himself increasingly in the hot seat over the group’s plummeting share price, which has shed nearly a quarter of its value in the past year. – I-Net Bridge