White CEO’s Hiring at Absa Angers Top South African Investor
(Bloomberg) -- South Africa's most powerful investor has lashed out at the country's third-biggest bank for choosing a White man as its chief executive officer.
The Public Investment Corp., which manages $160 billion, expressed “downright disappointment” with the March 29 appointment of Arrie Rautenbach as CEO of Absa Group Ltd., almost a year after Daniel Mminele, the bank's first Black CEO, quit unexpectedly.
The PIC, which mainly manages the pensions of South African government workers, said it had previously expressed dissatisfaction over Mminele's departure, which it said created instability as he had “divergent professional views and approaches to that of the board.”
South African companies have been under pressure to appoint more Black executives since the end of apartheid in 1994 but have made limited progress. Mminele, a former deputy central bank governor, was only the third Black executive to lead one of South Africa's four biggest banks. Of the 10 largest local companies by market value, only two currently have Black CEOs in a country where four out of five people are Black, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The PIC expected that the board would have placed the required focus on transformation in the process to recruit a new CEO,” it said in a statement on Friday. “The PIC has requested an urgent meeting with the Absa board.
Absa defended the decision, saying both the executive and the board are aligned on the principle of driving transformation across all levels within the Group. It added that Rautenbach was right for the job, citing his leadership in the turnaround of the retail and business banking unit.
“The PIC is an important stakeholder not only to Absa but to the wider society,” the lender said in an emailed response to questions. “We take their concerns seriously and will continue to engage them constructively.”
The PIC, which is several times larger than its nearest South African competitor, owns 6.7% of Absa, second only to Barclays Plc, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Absa lags behind only Standard Bank Group Ltd. and FirstRand Ltd. in terms of assets.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
