Alexander Forbes Group Holdings

Alexander Forbes is a diversified financial services organisation providing a broad range of employee benefits consulting (including healthcare), investment management, insurance and wealth management solutions to both corporate clients and individual customers. The company employs 2 467 people, all of whom are dedicated to delivering outstanding employee benefit, investment and administrative solutions and services for institutional clients, and securing the financial well-being of individual clients. Alexander Forbes is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) and its clients span both the private and public sector market segments on the institutional side, and individual members. The company’s principal geographic focus is South Africa (where it has been operating since 1935), sub-Saharan Africa and the Channel Islands.

Alexander Forbes operations date back to the consolidation of insurance agencies in South Africa in 1935, when the original business was founded as Price Forbes, later changing its name to Price Forbes Life and Pension Brokers in 1955.[2]

In the 1970s, Price Forbes Life and Pension Brokers began diversifying its range of services to include fund administration, employee benefit consulting and actuarial services as well as retirement and estate planning. The business name was changed to Price Forbes Employee Benefits Consultants due to the diversification.[2]

Following a number of acquisitions by the Group in the early 1980s, the name was changed to Alexander Forbes Financial Services.[2]

The Group commenced international expansion in 1990 with the establishment of a small insurance brokerage operation in London and Jersey, which the Group later expanded through the acquisition of Nelson Hurst plc. The insurance brokerage business was also expanded into other African countries to continue servicing South African corporate clients which were expanding into these markets.

In 2002, the Group further expanded its international financial services business through the acquisition of a 60% interest in Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), a leading actuarial consultancy firm in the UK. This was followed by further acquisitions of the businesses that formed Investment Solutions in the UK, Alexander Forbes Consultants and Actuaries (AFCA UK) and Media Insurance Services (Direct Marketing), and the expansion of LCP into Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands and Switzerland. Between 2012 and 2014, the Group disposed of a number of these interests, including the sale of AFCA UK, Investment Solutions UK, Media Insurance Services, LCP Switzerland and Alexander Forbes Trustee Services to focus on its core markets.[2]

In 2006, Actis Capital LLP, Ethos Private Equity Ltd and Harbourvest Partners LLC made an offer of ZAR 7.4 billion rand (US$980 million) for the acquisition of the entire stock of Alexander Forbes other than 30% that was held by Staff and B-BBEE Partner Shanduka Group. The deal was said to be the largest and most complex leveraged buy-out ever undertaken in Africa. This led to the delisting of Alexander Forbes from the JSE.

On 24 July 2014, Alexander Forbes announced an offer for shares to existing shareholders, institutional investors and other selected investors. The Offer Shares were for sale at a price between ZAR 6.90 and ZAR 8.05 per share. The offer had Deutsche Bank AG, Morgan Stanley & Company and Rand Merchant Bank as its book runners. The IPO managed to raise ZAR 3.7 billion (US$345 million). This IPO marked the Group’s return to the JSE since its exit in 2006.

Alexander Forbes has operations in the following regions:

• Former British Prime Minister John Major worked at the London office of the bank for a brief period in 1959.[3]

• Economy of South Africa