The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), as a major shareholder in Old Mutual, has taken a keen interest in the fracas between former CEO Peter Moyo and the company.
PIC chair Reuel Khoza said this week: "We could not sit back as a major shareholder and not take accountability where our investee company is concerned." He added there had been "communication at executive level on several occasions, but at board level I have personally taken the trouble to talk to Moyo and his lawyers and get to understand what their stance is in terms of how best to resolve this situation".
We don’t believe in
— Reuel Khoza, Chair of Public Investment Corp
threats, or in imposing
ourselves, but …
He said he was given a commitment that they would prefer to settle out of court, but they had had to go to court because they felt they were "not adequately listened to".
They were amenable to settling the dispute amicably long before the November court date.
The PIC wrote to Trevor Manuel, Old Mutual chair, to request that the matter be addressed urgently. This was followed by a meeting at the PIC offices at which the two options to resolve the impasse became clear: to settle out of court, or to follow the legal due process to its end.
"Either one of those options would work, but we are concerned about the protracted nature of the legal route," said Khoza. "While that proceeds apace, the company's performance will be suffering, the share price will be eroding or may fail to recover.
"We would prefer for the two parties to come together and resolve the matter, but as a major shareholder we are not going to impose an arbitrator. We are just an investor.
"We believe we are dealing with essentially reasonable parties, but one party might feel this way and the other might feel that way. We don't believe in threats, we don't believe in imposing ourselves unduly in the affairs of our investee companies, but we cannot sit back and behave as though there are no problems."
Khoza said the exchange of a number of letters and the meetings the PIC had had with Old Mutual were at this stage "perhaps good enough", but if nothing happens "we might have to perhaps seriously consider the next step, and that next step cannot be announced through the media".
In large measure, governance was sound at Old Mutual, bar this aberration.
"We were also assured that it was not just the chair behaving this way but in fact a board stance with regards to the suspension and firing and refiring of Moyo. That the board did deliberate and agonise about the issue."
Meanwhile, in another blow to Old Mutual, board member and MD of Old Mutual Personal Finance Karabo Morule has resigned, the company said in a statement on Friday. This follows the resignation of nonexecutive director Pinky Moholi in September. Both resigned due to personal reasons, the company said.
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