Bank boss quits in a huff over job
BARCLAYS Africa’s departing deputy chief executive David Hodnett turned down the opportunity to lead the group’s corporate and investment bank, in all likelihood seeing it as a demotion from his previous role.
“He was offered the job,” Barclays Africa chairwoman Wendy Lucas-Bull told Business Day at the banking group’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday.
This is its first AGM since the Barclays plc sell-down.
Lucas-Bull could not comment on Hodnett’s reasons for declining the offer. She said Barclays Africa would now move forward with appointing a new chief executive of its corporate and investment banking to oversee the unit’s current joint heads, Mike Harvey and Temi Ofong.
When Hodnett’s two-month sabbatical was announced early in April, speculation was rife that he was on his way out.
Hodnett’s role as head of SA banking was done away with as part of a strategy and management shake-up to better align the group with its post-Barclays future.
Returning as CEO of the corporate and investment bank might have seemed like a step down for Hodnett, who in his previous role was responsible for both that bank and the retail and business bank in SA.
Arrie Rautenbach, formerly the bank’s chief risk officer and head of strategy, is now heading up the retail and business bank in SA.
That the length of Hodnett’s handover period will run until the end of August is an indication of the broad scope of his previous role. He is credited with driving far greater collaboration between the group’s two largest units, which operated fairly independently of each other during the Barclays plc years.
At the same time, the new group structure seeks to remove red tape. Heads of the four core business units – corporate and investment banking; retail and business banking SA; wealth, investment management and insurance; and rest of Africa – will report to chief executive Maria Ramos.
Shareholders, however, have expressed concern about Hodnett’s departure.
“We thought he was good and the market liked him too,” said Allan Gray portfolio manager Simon Raubenheimer.
“It’s always disappointing to see the departure of an executive of the calibre of David Hodnett,” said Neelash Hansjee, a portfolio manager and analyst at Old Mutual Equities.
“We are concerned about the depth of management at a senior level at such an important juncture for the group.”
Barclays Africa will rebrand as Absa Group Ltd by July, embarking on a refreshed strategy now that it is unchained from its British parent.
It was not appropriate to appoint a new CEO at Barclays Africa at this time, said Lucas-Bull.