Old Mutual, South Africa’s largest insurer, will unveil details of its black economic empowerment (BEE) plans in the “near future”, CEO Jim Sutcliffe has confirmed.
The group has been working on a transaction involving the sale of a 10% stake in its South African operations, as well as banking group Nedcor and short-term insurer Mutual & Federal, to black empowerment partners. Originally, the terms of the deal were expected to be announced in the second half of 2004.
Speaking during a conference call following the release of the group’s results for the year to the end of December 2004, Sutcliffe said the company continues to “work hard” to create the deal.
“We are also busy with many other BEE projects, involving different aspects of empowerment,” he commented. “We will make an announcement on our BEE plans in the near future.”
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) recently accused Old Mutual of using “divide-and-rule tactics” among unions to weaken the unions’ collective bargaining power. While not specifying Old Mutual’s offer to it, the umbrella body rejected the offer as “peanuts”, while saying it will continue to negotiate for a favourable outcome.
Earlier, Old Mutual reported a 46% increase in its adjusted operating earnings per share (EPS) for the year to the end of December 2004 to 181,1 South African cents versus 123,8 cents the year earlier.
The group declared a final dividend of 3,5 pence, up 13% from 2003 levels, for a total dividend for the year of 5,25 pence.
The London-listed company’s adjusted operating EPS were up 53% in sterling terms to 15,3 pence from 10 pence the previous year.
The results beat South African analysts’ expectations, with a consensus of seven analysts surveyed by I-Net Bridge forecasting EPS of 171,9 cents. — I-Net Bridge