You’d think Bruce Hemphill did the unthinkable when in March 2016 he abolished his chief executive job at Old Mutual after only four months. However, he had made a similar move at South Africa-based Standard Bank.
“It is not an easy thing to do, but in the long run it is right for shareholders. I could have said ‘let’s kick the can down the road’, but I think it’ll just come back to bite you,” said Hemphill, as quoted by a report by the
Financial Times.
He was talking about his move to break up Old Mutual – or what’s termed in the company’s timeline as its “managed separation strategy” – into four entities.
The report put it as a split into a British wealth manager, an American asset manager, a South African bank, and an emerging markets insurance business based in South Africa. It added that the insurance business will be spun off by Hemphill.
Old Mutual previously announced, “The managed separation will be effected in a manner that maximises value to shareholders over time and we expect it to be materially complete by the end of 2018.”
As for Standard Bank, the report said Hemphill broke its commercial banking business into two at the expense of his job.
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