PROFILE New set of books

There was some surprise six months ago when Ingrid Johnson chose to leave a high-profile position as head of Nedbank’s retail and business banking. She took the stately, London-based job of CFO of Old Mutual Plc.

Under her watch Nedbank Retail turned from a R27m loss in 2009 to a R1,32bn profit last year.

“We planned for the best but prepared for the worst. We had made judicious bad debt provisions and we could release some,” she says.

Nedbank had previously scaled back in the retail market. But Johnson, with her advertising campaign centred on the likeable but naive Eugene character, increased the number of retail clients by more than a quarter in two years to 6,3m.

Even though there is still work to do at Nedbank Retail — the return on equity is still under target at 12,5% — Johnson says she now has the opportunity to make a difference to businesses around the world. Old Mutual has businesses in 30 countries, including major emerging markets such as India, China and Mexico. But it has exited areas in which it did not have a competitive advantage. The Nedbank offices in Asia have been closed and Old Mutual has sold most of its operations in continental Europe, most recently Germany and Austria.

“It is exciting to be part of the Ingrid Johnson Back to financial roots Quilter has very sticky clients who rarely move.

It complements Mutual’s offerings lower down the food chain, such as its multimanagement products WealthSelect and Cerillion, and direct unit trusts such as the UK Alpha Fund run by award-winning fund manager Richard Buxton. Through its broker network Intrinsic, Mutual has access to 3 000 advisers.

In October Old Mutual floated its US asset management subsidiary on Wall Street. This gives it the opportunity to undertake selective acquisitions, with dollar shares, of asset managers when they become available.

Another source of growth for the group is in Africa, and this has accelerated since Nedbank exercised its option to buy 20% of the West African-based Ecobank. Old Mutual has a three-pronged strategy in Africa: growing in life insurance, banking and short-term insurance. Johnson says there is a challenge now, particularly in Nigeria and Ghana, as the oil price has dropped, but she expects the group to navigate through.

She has kept her home in SA and just “moved some of [her] clothes” to London, where she has her main office. Perhaps this is an indication that it is not worth her while to buy a house in London as the head office is imminently moving back to SA?

Stephen Cranston cranstons@fm.co.za