Liberty seeks partners in Nigerian insurance
INSURER Liberty Holdings has said it was in talks with two insurance businesses in Nigeria and the plan was to get a suitable partner that was a proper fit for Liberty and its parent, Standard Bank.
“We have gone through six. We are still in talks with two,” Stanlib CEO and Liberty head of strategy Thabo Dloti said yesterday. If a deal is not struck in Nigeria by the end of this year, Liberty is unlikely to return the cash as a special dividend.
The company said there would be a need for cash to find growth opportunities.
Mr Dloti said the regulator in Nigeria was not looking at issuing new insurance licences, but encouraged partnership.
“From an insurance point of view we have identified people who we think we can add value to,” Mr Dloti said. The plan is to get a partner who is not in competition with Standard Bank.
In Nigeria, Liberty has a health business. It is in a partnership with Total Health Trust.
Liberty Retail CE Steve Braudo said the company was studying the Nigerian market and had discovered that people in the country did not like death benefits but preferred solutions that offered investment opportunities.
Mr Dloti said Liberty would look to grow its corporate business and look at offering solutions such as umbrella funds to large corporations in SA. In this regard, he hinted there was something brewing with parastatals. Liberty CEO Bruce Hemphill said the insurer was uniquely positioned to serve small and medium-sized enterprises. Mr Hemphill said Liberty has a leading umbrella fund solution for small and medium enterprise.
Liberty has the appetite to manage pure private equity there in the future. The plan is to look at medium-sized companies investing in Africa. In unlisted investments, Liberty has started an infrastructure fund and a direct property development fund.
Over the past seven years, Liberty has grown from being an insurer restricted to SA to a company in 14 African countries. In 2006, the company did not have a health business and a direct insurance platform. It had only a 30% interest in asset management.