Sanlam CEO Paul Hanratty has agreed to extend his term until the end of December 2027, having presided over a huge expansion of the group since taking over from Ian Kirk four years ago.
Hanratty joined Sanlam’s board in 2017 and became CEO in July 2020.
Hanratty’s three-pronged strategy to grow its dominance in its home market, expand in the rest of the continent and build a scalable nonbanking financial institution in India, has seen the company active in mergers and acquisitions space.
One of the biggest deals during Hanratty’s tenure was the joint venture between Sanlam and Europe’s largest insurer, Allianz.
The venture, SanlamAllianz, resulted in the groups pooling most of their businesses on the continent to create a financial services partnership worth about R35bn.
SanlamAllianz has a presence in eight of the 10 largest African markets, with the main drawcard for Sanlam being Egypt, a market it has yearned to play in for years.
Sanlam has a 60% stake in the venture, with the remaining 40% held by Allianz.
In 2023, Sanlam acquired a 60% stake in health insurer AfroCentric, added Capital Legacy to provide wills and estate services to local clients, and completed the buyout of the remaining shareholders in insurer BrightRock.
There was also the tie-up of its local investment management business with Absa to create an asset manager with R1-trillion in assets.
The group, worth about R158bn on the JSE, announced plans earlier in 2024 to buy its smaller competitor, Assupol, for R6.5bn.
Business Day reported last month that Hanratty said Sanlam is confident about its ability to withstand current global geopolitical risks.
This was as SA’s largest insurer reported a 15% increase in new business volumes in its life insurance business. Sanlam reported in its operational update for the quarter to end-March that group net client cash inflows improved by 14% to R8.8bn, while net operational earnings benefited from improved investment return, registering a 15% growth.
Hanratty said while risks remained, the company was in a good position to withstand headwinds that come with uncertain global geopolitics, which has seen war break out between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas.
“Globally, inflation and interest rates remain stubbornly high but we remain insulated from the effect of this, and will benefit from the eventual normalisation of these macro variables,” Hanratty said.
“While we remain concerned about the risks posed by global geopolitics, our balance sheet is resilient against macro shocks and our people show the greatest commitment to delivering results. Our group earnings, however, remain sensitive to significant moves in global investment market levels.”
Updated: June 6 2024
The story has been updated with new information.
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