Johannesburg - Liberty Africa wanted to become an influential player in Liberty Group, hoping to contribute at least 10 percent to the parent company's profit in the next five years, the unit's chief executive, Bernard Katompa, said late last week.
Katompa told Business Report that Liberty Africa would do this by expanding aggressively into Africa; it aimed to be in 42 countries by 2010.
"At the moment, we contribute less than 3 percent of the JSE-listed life and health insurer's profits," Katompa said. "This is insignificant. I want to increase this to 10 percent in the next five years. This is a goal I have set for myself ever since I started working on this operation."
Katompa started in his current position in September.
Analysts said this was quite an ambitious move, as such aggressive expansion would surpass that of competitors such as Metropolitan, Old Mutual and Sanlam.
"Some of these competitors have already moved into Africa," said one analyst. "But it looks like they are not in a hurry to expand .... Now what makes Liberty Africa so confident about African prospects?"
Katompa said his strategy was to diversify into new markets, where there was potential for growth because of the low penetration of financial services in Africa. He said economies were growing in these countries, resulting in a growing middle class.
"Pension fund reforms driven by the International Monetary Fund created lots of opportunities in Africa," Katompa said.
Liberty Africa already has units in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia.