Old Mutual was established in 1845 in the Cape of Good Hope as a mutual society. By 1999, Old Mutual provided a broad range of financial services to its policy-holders and other clients: life insurance, asset management, banking, and general insurance, with total assets of 32 billion pounds (R311 billion). On 12 June 1999, Old Mutual listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. Although the global economic situation had recovered from the Asian crisis, Old Mutual’s management were perturbed.

On 17 February 2017, Thomas Quinn, the managing director of online florist, Flowers4U.co.za[1], received an irate email from one of his clients. The client was still not satisfied with a solution he had proposed the day before to make up for unmet expectations regarding flowers delivered on Valentines’ Day. Quinn wondered how best to respond.

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FirstRand Limited in South Africa gave its full support to Stephan Claassen, Dr Theunie Lategan, Rohit Wahi, Mahendran Moodley and the team in India to proceed with the Africa-India corridor corporate investment bank, with the understanding that they should do what they could to develop other markets at a later date. With the go-ahead, the team finalised and sent their banking licence application to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Categories: Strategy,

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Rob Brozin, chairman of Nando’s International, based in South Africa, was reconsidering the company’s international expansion programme in general, and the decision to enter Singapore and Malaysia in particular. The aims of listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in April 1997 were to insulate their South African operations from the risks of international expansion, and to raise the necessary capital for expansion. The main uncertainty for Brozin was the extent to which Nando’s success in South Africa was transferable abroad.

No. Pages: 30 

In February 2008, eight months after FirstRand Limited sent Stephan Claassen to India to gather insights for a market-entry strategy into that country – the initial preference being to set up as a retail bank – Claassen presented a strategy to the board that focused on setting up as a corporate investment bank in the Africa-India corridor. He knew he had done well in convincing FirstRand’s board of the strategy, but now wondered about other opportunities that would present themselves, and how the team in India would incorporate them into what would become FirstRand Bank India.

In July 2009, businessman and entrepreneur, Martyn Mills of MCM Wines, reconsidered his marketing strategy. He had been exporting his own wine to China since 2003 and had recently signed an agreement with the prestigious South African wine estate, Groot Constantia, to export its wine to that country as well. However, conducting business in China was complex and expensive and, earlier that year, he had partnered with a new importer in China to help combat certain of the challenges.

Rob Angel, CEO of Engen, was concerned about the future of his company. By early 1998, the fall-out of the Asian crisis had affected world markets, including the JSE. A low stock price and global industry conglomeration increased the possibility of a hostile take-over, and the end of much of what Angel had accomplished. In June 1998, Petronas formally offered to buy out all the shareholders of Engen Petroleum Ltd. Angel needed to have a clear recommendation ready for the Engen board meeting planned to discuss the Petronas offer.

Dimension Data, founded in 1983, was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1987. By 2000, the company had grown into a provider of global network integration services and global end-to-end i-Commerce to corporations, telecommunication service providers and new economy companies. It was represented on five continents, in over 30 countries and employed more than 10 000 staff. Market value increased from R30 million in 1987 to R53.2 billion by March 2000. The group was not only the largest IT company in South Africa, but one of the largest integration service businesses in the world.

A cathartic moment had been reached for the Africa operation of Barclays PLC when Barclays Africa CEO, Dominic Bruynseels presented two options to his team in January 2003. The bank’s performance on the continent had been declining since 1986. It could either sell off the Africa operation within the next 12 months, or, if his team could demonstrate an ability to manage risk on the continent and deliver returns for the group in the following year, it could make a major acquisition in Africa.

Aiming to increase the globalisation efforts for South African Breweries (SAB), group chief executive of SAB, Graham Mackay, decided to shift SAB’s headquarters to London and listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 1999. While the global brewing industry remained highly fragmented in early 2000, the race for consolidation among the major players had begun in earnest. Despite SAB’s movement overseas, SAB was primarily an ‘emerging market’ brewer. SAB’s ratings on the international financial markets were inevitably affected, and raising capital was an expensive proposition.