8chan/8kun QResearch SOUTH AFRICA Posts (3)
#16567352 at 2022-06-30 19:47:20 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #7: "TRUTH cannot be hidden forever" Edition
>>16566437
>Mick Davis himself is friends with that other icon of leadership - Stephen Koseff of Investec. On 13 May 2015, Mick Davis and Stephen Koseff shared a stage at Investec in Sandton and addressed a forum of young entrepreneurs.
"Stephen Koseff - Breaking Down the Mistrust Between Government & Business" - https://youtu.be/lUGNHrH9y64
"Investec latest to bank on asset management flotation"
https://news.sky.com/story/investec-latest-to-bank-on-asset-management-flotation-11497426
14 September 2018
Sky's Ian King charts the trend of banks demerging their fund management arms and asks why Investec is the latest.
It's a name known to millions for its past sponsorship of Test cricket, its current sponsorship of The Derby and its famous zebra mascot.
Today, though, the South African bank Investec is attracting attention due to an unexpected decision to spin off its fund management arm.
Investec, a member of the FTSE 100 until December 2011, plans to float Investec Asset Management (IAM) as a separate company on the London stock exchange.
The news has been welcomed by investors and shares of the bank have shot up by almost 10%.
IAM, which currently contributes just under a quarter of group profits, will be a substantial business in its own right. It has ?109bn under management and growth has been particularly strong in recent years.
The move represents the continuation of a trend. French bank Societe Generale and Germany's Deutsche Bank have both demerged their fund management arms in recent years while the Prudential is in the process of demerging M&G.
Investec is one of a wave of South African companies to have floated in London since the end of apartheid and the country's international isolation.
Many of them, once given access to the bigger pools of capital available in the London stock market, have showcased the entrepreneurial flair of and managerial talent of a number of South African business leaders.
The most spectacular examples are Meyer Kahn and the late Graham Mackay who, having floated South African Breweries in London in 1999, built a company little known outside its homeland into the world's second-largest brewer.
Others include Sir Mick Davis, nicknamed "Mick the Miner", who built Xstrata into one of the world's biggest mining firms until its ?39.1bn takeover by Glencore in 2012.
Investec has shown similar entrepreneurial zeal. Formed in 1974 as a small leasing company, it floated in Johannesburg in 1986, making its first move outside South Africa in 1992 with the acquisition of London-based Allied Trust bank in 1992.
More UK acquisitions followed over the years, including the money broker Clive in 1995 and the stockbroker and investment adviser Carr Sheppards the following year.
The deal that really put the bank on the map in the City, though, came in 1998 with a series of deals that saw it acquire some of the most storied names in the Square Mile, including the fund manager Guinness Flight Hambro, the stockbroker Henderson Crosthwaite and the wealth management and private banking business Guinness Mahon.
The company moved its primary stock market listing from Johannesburg to London in July 2002 in the midst of a slump that had deterred a number of other businesses from floating.
Anyone who braved the conditions and bought the shares at the time of their London listing will have done well if they have held on to them.
Investec was valued at ?767m at the flotation. Its market capitalisation today stands at ?4.93bn.
Friday's news, which ironically comes weeks after Old Mutual - another South African financial services group and former FTSE-100 member - completed its break-up will mark the end of an era in more ways than one.
Stephen Koseff, the current chief executive and Bernard Kantor, currently the managing director, will be stepping down after 38 years with the bank, although both will remain as directors.
According to the bank, the logic behind the demerger is that IAM will do better standing on its own two feet, since it will have the freedom to expand at its own pace and without having to take into consideration the capital needs of the wider group.
Or, as Hendrik du Toit [another South African], who will be chief executive of IAM once it is listed, put it this morning: "If you want to play in the super league in asset management, independence wins."
That is assuming, of course, that the business makes it to market.
There is already speculation in the Square Mile that Investec's announcement will prompt rivals into seeking to buy IAM prior to an IPO.
#16566437 at 2022-06-30 17:30:15 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #7: "TRUTH cannot be hidden forever" Edition
>>16566250
>>16566261
>>16566273
>>16566316
>>16566342
>>16566402
"Icarus has fallen - politics and the tragedy of Brian Molefe" - State Capture, Eskom, Optimum Coal Mine, Glencore, KPMG, Guptas, murder of Dulcie September, Marc Rich, Ivan Glasenberg, Mick Davis, Xstrata, Vitol, etc. - (7 of 8)
https://what-is-a-blogg.blogspot.com/2016/11/icarus-has-fallen-politics-and-tragedy_4.html
4 November 2016
The possible negative consequences were listed as follows -
"[3.1] possible shortages in coal supply to Eskom occasioned by the transaction;
__[3.2] a reduction in the quality of coal supplied to Eskom (with resultant detrimental
effects on the stability of Eskom's generation equipment and the increased possibility of
unplanned outages and load shedding); and,__
__[3.3] a likely increase in the exporting of coal with the concomitant consequences for
domestic prices of coal to Eskom (in order to prevent increased coal exports, Eskom
would be required to match the economic return gained from exporting the relevant
quality of coal by subjecting itself to export parity pricing.)"__
Unfortunately, the Competition Commission ignored Eskom's pleas and the merger was approved - with disastrous consequences for South Africa.
The great thing about Glasenberg is that he is very comfortable with being unpopular, and betraying friends and enemies does not stress him too much. In the merger with Xstrata, he and Mick Davis were supposed to be equal partners; and they were - for a day or 2. As soon as the merger was finalised, Glasenberg booted out Mick Davis during the first week of the merger. Davis swallowed his pride and walked away - but never forgot. Glencore became one of the biggest companies in the world and Glasenberg was one of the richest men in the world - until 2015.
Mick Davis himself is friends with that other icon of leadership - Stephen Koseff of Investec. On 13 May 2015, Mick Davis and Stephen Koseff shared a stage at Investec in Sandton and addressed a forum of young entrepreneurs. Davis did not dwell on his exit from Glencore but rather on the appropriateness of business leaders commenting on politics. A month later, Glencore - as part of its strategy of getting Eskom to pay higher prices - then threatened to dismiss 380 employees from Optimum as part of the process of shutting down the mine. In response, the Minister of Mineral Resources - Ngoako Ramathlodi - suspended Glencore's operating licence. And then the king of state capture himself - Glasenberg - called the Minister directly and essentially told him to fuck off. The Minister lifted the suspension within moments of Glasenberg's call. Glencore then carried on trying to bully Eskom into paying higher prices. President Jacob Zuma fired Ramathlodi 6 weeks after this scandalous incident. This was in September 2015.
And then it all started falling apart for Glasenberg.
In the same week that Zwane was appointed, a blow struck at the heart of the Glasenberg empire. On a Monday morning in September 28th - 5 days after President Zuma's appointment of Zwane - a bank in London published a note indicating that the Glencore business was in trouble. In true Glasenberg style, Glencore responded by saying the note was rubbish. But the market thought otherwise. Glencore lost 22% of its value in 1 day. Glasenberg himself lost $500 million - that is R7 billion - in that one day, and kept losing more money which eventually led him to agree to selling off Optimum Coal. The issuer of the note that started all the drama - Stephen Koseff's Investec Bank...
And if that wasn't enough - the Guptas decided to sell off their export licence to another company. Glencore essentially had one competitor after swallowing Xstrata. That competitor is called Vitol. 2 months ago, Tegeta sold this right that once belonged to Glasenberg to - you guessed it - Vitol. And they gave them a discount of R1,25 billion on the sale...
The curious thing about this state capture saga is that Thuli's report did not unpack the entire journey of the Glencore story - which is sad. Given the fact that the report is so centred around the Eskom-Glencore-Gupta alliance, I honestly expected it to unpack the true mechanics of the transaction; but it only focuses on the small window of shenanigans. This report is due to be given a second phase - which must be welcomed.
#13901053 at 2021-06-14 15:24:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research South Africa #5: RIP President Magufuli Edition
"'Sidney Frankel is a paedophile'" and shady business dealings, even with murdered Brett Kebbledated 1st October 2014 at https://www.noseweek.co.za/article/3290/Sidney-Frankel-is-a-paedophile
One victim who spoke to Noseweek said: "I am aware of one child who was an orphan in the Jewish orphanage - of which Sidney Frankel was a patron - who was not ready to go public. Maybe there are others. Maybe we can approach the Constitutional Court to overturn the 20-year rule on this."
A 'highly adaptive' businessman
The people and entities that accompanied Brett Kebble throughout his criminal career are but few. The short list includes Investec (and its CEO, Stephen Koseff), KPMG, and SocGen (starting point for Peter Gray), although perhaps no surprise to Noseweek readers, the fourth is "respected" stockbroker Sidney Frankel (noses29,15,14 & 8: That dirty slimeball, that's what his friends call him).
In 1996, Frankel, who some describe as a philanthropist, was in the news after SocGen acquired 51% of Joburg stockbrokers Frankel Pollak, where he was CEO. At the time, the brokerage was being investigated by the JSE for "administrative irregularities" in connection with former directors Greg Blank and Frikkie Kruger.
Frankel Pollak's legal team was led by ENS's figurative and literal head Michael Katz, Frankel's brother-in-law. At the time, Peter Gray, the boss at SocGen Johannesburg, said that charges against Frankel Pollak had been thoroughly assessed before the deal was signed.
Frankel became deputy chairman and CEO of the new company, SocGen-Frankel Pollak. His overbearing father, Leslie, became life president.
In due course, things changed for the worse and in 2002, SocGen Joburg started retrenching staff. Around that time "Bossie" Boshoff, still employed by SocGen in Joburg, received a call from Peter Gray (see Shifty shades of Gray in this issue) - now reduced to the status of "consultant" to SocGen - wanting Boshoff to join him in setting up an international treasury for a "major mining house".
Later, at Frankel's office in Joburg, it was revealed that Brett Kebble's JCI group was providing the financing to secure control of the brokerage Tradek-Balderson. Frankel advised against any dealings with Kebble, who he said was unscrupulous.
"Sidney then made me promise I would never be forced by Brett to contravene exchange control in dealings with his companies", said Boshoff. Despite that warning, soon afterwards Frankel was facilitating the use of stolen cash to settle Kebble's debt to SocGen. In due course, on 12 April 2002, Frankel Consulting paid the sum of R28m to SocGen in part-settlement of Kebble's liability.
Jump to 2006: during a heated exchange T-Sec CEO Leonard Steenkamp admitted that the auditors had picked up a very big - R17m - payment during their audit that was made to Sidney Frankel Consulting. Steenkamp confirmed the amount had been paid into an overseas bank account - the sort of thing Frankel had warned his staff not to do for Kebble.
In a sworn statement of 18 October 2006, Frankel stated that Frankel Consulting Financial Services, of which he was the sole member, had acted for and on behalf of the JCI group "for several years" and had represented JCI "in a variety of transactions".
Like Investec, KPMG and Gray, Frankel earned many millions from Kebble - before and after his death. In a circular to shareholders dated 30 October 2006, in which JCI announced the sale of its remaining shares in Western Areas to Gold Fields, Frankel Consulting was listed as having been paid R2.5m for "fees".
Even after the greatest fraud the country had seen became public knowledge, Frankel persisted: in 2007, he sued JCI and Randgold for R3.3m in fees still owing from the disposal of Western Areas shares to Gold Fields.
As one fellow stockbroker has noted, Sidney Frankel is "highly adaptive" in business and politics. In one era, his offices had pictures of FW de Klerk and in another, Frankel was photographed posing with Nelson Mandela.