BRIMSTONE consortium
Izingwe Financial Services
Corporate Profile
Key Management
Corporate Profile
IZINGWE FINANCIAL INVESTMENTS
Izingwe Financial Investments, a shareholder in Mtha-we-Mpumelelo Investments, is an associate company of Izingwe Capital (“Izingwe”), an empowerment investment vehicle led by Sipho M. Pityana, the former Director General of the Departments of Labour and Foreign Affairs and previously the Managing Director of Nedbank Strategic Business Development.
Izingwe invests in established and successful companies in a variety of sectors. To date, its primary focus has been the manufacturing and engineering, financial services and mining sectors. Izingwe is a long term and active equity holder. It makes focussed interventions to protect and secure new business and to reposition and transform companies to adapt and thrive in the current environment. These focussed interventions are in terms of performance agreements which govern Izingwe’s day to day involvement in its investments.
Since its formation in January 2004, Izingwe has established a presence in various key industries, including –
- Power and engineering, where a consortium led by Izingwe recently acquired a 30% stake in Aberdare Cables, Africa’s largest cable manufacturer;
- Financial services, through its interest in Riscura Solutions, an independent pension fund and asset management consultancy that represents clients with funds in excess of R400 billion; and
- Paper and pulp, where Izingwe in partnership with Actis and management, acquired Peters Papers from Nampak Limited. Peters Papers distributes over 6,000 paper and associated products to commercial printers and resellers.
Other shareholders include Phillip D. Dexter, the former Executive Director of NEDLAC, Ashley B. Ally, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Aid Board, Tsakani Matshazi, a chartered accountant with significant private equity experience and Mark Sifris, a corporate attorney.
Izingwe has a combination of complementary skills. This includes high level strategic visioning and positioning; extensive understanding of the public and private sector, strong financial, legal and managerial skills and abilities as well as strong business development and marketing.
Key Management
Sipho M. Pityana (BA Hon, MSc ( London)) is Executive Chairman of Izingwe. He is Non-Executive Chairman of Riscura, Vice Chairman of Aberdare Cables, Non-Executive Director of Bytes Technology Group and a member of NEPAD Business Group Steering Committee. He was a Group Executive Director of Nedcor Investment Bank Holdings and a Managing Director in Nedbank. He was formerly Director General of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Labour, the Registrar of the University of Fort Hare and the Chairman of the Johannesburg World Summit Company. He serves on several boards of various state entities. He has an extensive understanding of public sector policy due to his pivotal contribution in driving significant public restructuring processes. He has a strong understanding of the dynamics and opportunities on the African continent as a result of his many years of involvement and associations with significant players in the continent.
Ashley B. Ally (MSc ( Dortmund), MBA (Oxford Brookes - Current)) is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Izingwe. In 2002 he completed a term as Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Aid Board where he engineered a dramatic turnaround to establish a new board that is financially sound and dynamically adaptable to the changing conditions in South Africa. He was previously the Strategic Executive for the City of Johannesburg responsible for a joint portfolio that covered Metropolitan Planning, Economic Development, Transportation and Marketing and Tourism. He was also the Bid Project Manager for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. As a result he has long successful track record in high-level strategy development and implementation.
Tsakani Matshazi (BCom, PGDA (UCT) (CA (SA)) has primary responsibility for the financial affairs at Izingwe. She completed her articles at PriceWaterhouse Coopers Inc. She has two years of private equity experience with Worldwide Capital Limited where she held a position of Private Equity Executive. This position covered all components relating to identifying investment opportunities, their valuation and transaction implementation and monitoring. From September 2002 to her recent employment at Izingwe, she managed the operations of the business finance unit of the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.
Phillip D. Dexter (BA, MA (UCT)) has recently completed a four year term as the Executive Director of the National Economic Development and Labour Council. In that capacity he was responsible for facilitating national agreement for significant legislation and public policy initiatives. He has strong working relationships with leadership of business, the public sector, labour and communities. Phillip is currently a member of the African National Congress Executive Committee and the National Treasurer of the South African Communist Party. His directorships include SA Tourism and Proudly South African. He was previously a Member of Parliament and the General Secretary of National Health and Allied Workers Union. Phillip is an Executive Director of Izingwe.
Mark Sifris (BCom, LLB (University of the Witwatersrand)) is a corporate attorney with four years experience at Werksmans Attorneys. His particular area of expertise was mergers, acquisitions and disposals, listings and transnational transactions. From 1999 to 2002 he consulted to the Trade Union Investment Movement on BEE. In this capacity, he was involved in implementing a number of transactions, managing a number of large tender processes and developing policy and solutions to implement BEE transformation imperatives. He is currently an Executive Director at Izingwe.