Nedcor’s chairperson, former finance minister Chris Liebenberg, is to retire at the company’s annual general meeting in May after more than 50 years’ service, the company said on Monday.
Nedcor’s headline earnings for the year to December 31 2003 declined from R2,5-billion in 2002 to R55-million, with net profit/loss attributable to ordinary shareholders down from a profit of R875-million to a loss of R1,6-billion.
Nedcor chief executive Tom Boardman — who replaced Richard Laubscher on December 8 in a management shake-up — said the 2003 financial performance had been disappointing, but was in line with the trading updates provided to shareholders in November and December.
The biggest factor affecting headline earnings was the strengthening of the rand, resulting in a foreign exchange translation loss of R1,4-billion.
Other influences were interest-rate mismatches on fixed-deposit funding raised after the acquisition of BoE, expenses growing faster than revenues, and the clean-up of the balance sheet, which impacted on both headline earnings and attributable earnings.
The group also announced plans for a rights offer to raise R5-billion of additional ordinary share capital. The capital will be used to repay loans of R2,5-billion that qualify as secondary capital and the balance to further bolster the group’s capital adequacy ratio to more than 11%. Parent company Old Mutual plc will take up its rights under the issue and the balance of the new shares has been fully underwritten.
Boardman said the group has a new, younger executive management team, the balance sheet has been cleaned up and controls introduced to reduce volatility of earnings, while the capital base has been restored and strengthened.
“The recovery programme is gaining momentum, we have started to deliver on our promise of greater transparency, and the relationship with Old Mutual continues to strengthen. These factors, together with the strong franchises and good people in the group, mean that we have started to turn the corner on the road to recovery.”
As part of the recovery programme, the balance sheet has been thoroughly analysed and the group is focused on cost-reduction measures and the central management of the group’s interest-rate risk and foreign-exchange exposure.
Its management is to be held accountable for performance delivery, and will be rewarded on a return on equity-based incentive system. A key focus will be on improving client service.
The Nedcor board is being reduced from 22 to 17. Only the chief executive and the chief financial officer will in future be executive directors. — Sapa
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