The top brass at hospitality group Sun International are planning to seek the approval of shareholders to hike the company’s retirement age for non-executive directors from 70 to 75 as the talent pool to fill board positions shrinks.
The proposal to amend the company’s memorandum of incorporation (MOI) will be tabled at the group’s AGM, set for mid-May.
Sun International’s current MOI provides that non-executive directors who have attained the age of 70 will likewise retire at the end of each year thereafter, but may, if eligible, be re-elected annually for further periods of one year at a time.
“At the AGM to be held on May 7 2025, shareholders will be requested to approve certain amendments to the company’s MOI,” the company said in its annual report published on Monday.
“One of these is to increase the automatic retirement age from 70 to 75 years for non-executive directors serving on the Sun International board, whereafter they will be required to retire at each AGM and may, if eligible, be re-elected by shareholders annually for a period of one year at a time,” it said.
“This change has been necessitated as a result of the shortage of experienced non-executive directors in the SA market and is aligned with general practice.”
The average age of Sun International’s board increased from 55 years in 2023 to 56 in 2024 with three members in the 61-70 age bracket.
The company’s nomination committee said it had identified material gaps on the board, which among others include the need to appoint younger directors “who may possess different skills to those traditionally found in the hospitality and casino industries”.
It said such candidates could also be found offshore. A 2022 PwC study found that the median age of chairs in SA is 64, while that of other board members (excluding chairs) is 58.
A cursory look at recent board appointments shows that the country’s leading public companies show a desire to bolster both executive and board experience while keeping a focus on gender diversity.
Board experience
An increasing number of board appointments went to directors with CEO and previous board experience.
For example, former JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King sits on several boards including AngloGold Ashanti, Investec and at the largest mobile network operator in Africa, MTN Group.
The 2023 SA Spencer Stuart board index found 57% of nonexecutive directors have previous experience in the same sector as the company on whose board they sit.
The data also shows that 43% bring different sector expertise to the board, in particular from financial services.
The average age of board members is 60, which is comparable to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) average of 59. The average age of women is 57, and of their male counterparts 61.
The 2023 SA Spencer Stuart board index said this trend is akin to that seen in the EMEA, where women are aged 57 on average and men are 60, on average. Across the various cohorts reviewed (chairs, executives, new directors and so on) female directors are on average younger than their male counterparts.
Business Day in February reported that attention has now turned to how long Sibanye-Stillwater chair Vincent Maphai will stay on in the key role, having reached the age of 72 — the approved retirement age for board members.
The average age of Sibanye’s board is 65, when excluding the executive directors, packing a lot of industry experience and some of the sector’s storied names — including Richard Menell, formerly the president of the Minerals Council.
Incoming CEO Richard Stewart is in his late 40s, while CFO Charl Keyter is 50 years old.
Sibanye in its 2023 annual report said it was paying close attention to board succession.
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