Barclays Africa hires Matlare

NEWS from Barclays Africa on Friday that it had appointed former Tiger Brands CEO Peter Matlare and that its Corporate and Investment Bank CEO Stephen van Coller had decided to retire from banking surprised and disappointed the market in equal measure.

Matlare resigned from Tiger Brands in December, and has taken the blame for the group’s disastrous venture into Nigeria. It eventually had to write off R2.6bn on the flour milling business, which it sold back to Dangote Industries in 2015 for $1 after it bought a majority stake in the business, Dangote Flour Mills, for R1.6bn in 2012.

Matlare has had a long relationship with Barclays Africa as a nonexecutive director since 2011, though he came under fire there too for attending only seven of the 10 board meetings in financial 2015.

Barclays Africa CEO Maria Ramos described Matlare as “a seasoned executive who brings a wealth of skills and leadership experience”. Matlare, who will become joint deputy CEO of Barclays Africa with David Hodnett, will be responsible for operations in the rest of Africa.

Hodnett, who will remain finance director and head of strategy, will continue to lead the process of separating Barclays Africa’s operations from parent Barclays plc, which wants to sell its 62% stake in Barclays Africa to a level at which it could deconsolidate it — expected to be less than 20%. It is unclear how operational a role Matlare will have across Africa, but sources say that regulators in countries where the group operates have been unimpressed with the manner of Barclays plc’s divestment, and there is work to be done to bring them back on board.

Investec Asset Management portfolio manager Chris Steward said Matlare’s appointment would free up Hodnett for the more important task of extricating the two businesses.

“The timing is not ideal given that the Corporate and Investment Bank has become an increasingly important part of Barclays Africa’s operations in the last few years.”