Financial and risk services provider Alexander Forbes has been awarded a BBB rating by independent economic empowerment rating agency EmpowerDEX.
A triple-B rating denotes that it is a satisfactory broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) contributor with an unrestricted operational capacity.
The operations of Alexander Forbes consist of the provision of risk and financial solutions and services.
Vuyo Jack, chief executive of EmpowerDEX, commended Alexander Forbes on its empowerment status and good rating.
“The BEE progress made to date by Alexander Forbes sets a good base for their long-term strategies to further promote sustainable broad-based empowerment and transformation,” said Jack.
The BEE rating report is based on information provided to EmpowerDEX and reflects an independent opinion based on verification, validation and an analysis audit performed by EmpowerDEX.
Jack said: “Corporate South Africa needs to realise that creating and implementing BEE structures that form part of the company’s overall strategy, such as Alexander Forbes has done, will foster BEE transformation and advance the company in the long term.”
Rael Gordon, CEO of Alexander Forbes, said the company has made BEE one of its priorities at every level of the organisation and has worked diligently and relentlessly at transformation initiatives, including contributing to empowerment of the financial services sector and the country at large.
“We asked EmpowerDEX for an interim rating to give us an independent perspective on our progress because we want to know where we stand and where we need to improve even before the Financial Services Charter Council commences the formal rating process in January next year,” Gordon said.
“We are encouraged by our BBB rating and pleased that our concerted efforts have awarded us the title of a satisfactory broad-based economic empowerment company. This rating provides us with the impetus to continue our efforts and strive for a AAA rating.”
Alexander Forbes pioneered BEE initiatives in the financial services sector back in 1982, two decades before it was legislated. The company’s strategic decision to be proactive about empowerment resulted in it being a BEE champion in the financial services sector.
The Alexander Forbes empowerment partnership with Millennium Consolidated Investments (MCI), a BEE consortium headed by Cyril Ramaphosa structured in 2002, was recently mirrored in Namibia when Cherish Investments, a Namibian BEE consortium, entered into an equity partnership with Alexander Forbes Namibia, giving it an effective 30% shareholding and the appointment of the director, Sidney Martin, to the board.
“These BEE transactions have given Alexander Forbes an important strategic footprint for our South African and Namibian businesses and have provided us with the right partners to transform our business and expand into wider markets,” Gordon said.
MCI chairperson Ramaphosa said the Namibian transaction reflects the ongoing commitment of Alexander Forbes to black economic empowerment.
“History has shown that negotiating a BEE deal that truly delivers broad-based empowerment is not easy but the EmpowerDEX rating is proof that Alexander Forbes is already achieving results. I have no doubt that, working together with MCI, the targets Alexander Forbes have set for BEE will continue to be met,” Ramaphosa said.
Gordon explained that change, particularly at the pace Alexander Forbes has achieved, takes corporate cooperation and dedicated effort by all parties involved.
“The commitment to black economic empowerment by Alexander Forbes’s management team facilitated the successful implementation of the company’s BEE programmes and helped foster a culture within the organisation that has embraced transformation. In addition, Alexander Forbes’s employees, clients, associates and BEE partner MCI’s involvement and commitment to broad-based transformation has been exemplary and deserves recognition.”
The group’s BEE strategies and activities are wide-ranging and include employment equity, skills development, procuring from black suppliers, enterprise development and social investment.
Employment Equity steering committees within Alexander Forbes are tasked with implementing and monitoring the empowerment equity plans of the company and include skills development programmes.
An important part of the Alexander Forbes BEE partnership with MCI is the allocation of a 5% shareholding in Alexander Forbes’s South African business to the Alexander Forbes Community Trust. The trust serves as the social development vehicle for the group and its mandate is to empower and support organisations, communities and individuals in five key focus areas, namely HIV/Aids, the aged, the disabled, women and education.
Ramaphosa, who is also a trustee of the community trust, said the broad-based component is an important process of the MCI BEE deal with Alexander Forbes and the contribution that the trust has made to community empowerment to date is very satisfying. — I-Net Bridge