=More black economic empowerment (BEE) deals are on the cards in South Africa’s financial sector, with both Standard Bank and associated company Liberty Group issuing cautionary announcements on Thursday.
Speculation in the market is that Cyril Ramaphosa’s Millennium Consolidated Investments (MCI) is to form part of the BEE consortium that will take a 10% stake in Standard Bank.
These rumours were further fuelled by the announcement on Tuesday that Ramaphosa has resigned as a director of Standard Bank’s rival FirstRand.
“Mr Ramaphosa, in his capacity as chairman of and significant shareholder in MCI, has been offered an opportunity to participate in a BEE transaction which will result in a conflict of interest with his existing position as a director of FirstRand Limited,” FirstRand said in a statement at the time.
Thursday’s cautionary announcements did not furnish any details of the BEE transactions. — I-Net Bridge