FirstRand Limited

Type	Public company
Traded as	JSE: FSR
Industry	Banking and finance
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Johannesburg, South Africa
Key people	Lauritz Laurie Dippenaar Chairman Sizwe Errol Nxasana Group CEO[1]
Products	Loans, mortgages, transactional services, investments, debit cards, credit cards, insurance, asset management
Total assets	US$89 billion (ZAR:945.5 billion) (2014)[2]
Number of employees	38 989
Website	Homepage

FirstRand Limited, also referred to as FirstRand Group is the holding company of FirstRand Bank, and is a financial services provider in South Africa. It is one of the financial services providers licensed by the Reserve Bank of South Africa, the national banking regulator.^[3]

Overview[edit]

Listed on the JSE and the Namibian Stock Exchange, FirstRand Limited is one of the largest financial institutions in South Africa, and provides banking, insurance and investment products and services to retail, commercial, corporate and public sector customers. In addition to South Africa, the Group operates in eight key African territories, namely, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria. FirstRand Bank has branches in London and India.

FirstRand executes its strategy through a portfolio of leading financial services franchises; Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), the corporate and investment bank; First National Bank (FNB), the retail and commercial bank; WesBank, an instalment finance provider; and Ashburton Investments, the Group’s newly established investment management business.

The group has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. FirstRand is one of the five largest banking groups in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.^[4]

History[edit]

The FirstRand Group's history traces back to the 1970s as an investment bank. The Group as currently is was established on April 1, 1998, through a merger of the financial services interests of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Limited (now Anglo American plc) and RMB Holdings (RMBH) in order to achieve the objective of a unified financial services grouping.^[5]

These financial services interests were First National Bank Holdings ("FNB"), Momentum Life Assurers Limited ("Momentum") and the Southern Life Association Limited ("Southern Life") all of which were listed on the JSE.^[5] FNB and Southern Life were delisted from the JSE and constituted as wholly owned subsidiaries of Momentum which was the vehicle to effect the merger. Momentum changed its name to FirstRand Limited and was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on May 25, 1998 with Anglo American and RMB Holdings holding 20.43% and 25.03% of the authorized capital of FirstRand respectively.^[6] Anglo American has since shed off its entire shareholding.^[7]

Post merger events saw the merging of Rand Merchant Bank and FNB to form FirstRand Bank Limited, with the two units remaining to trade as divisions of FirstRand Bank Limited and the transfer of Momentum's insurance business to that of into Southern Life to form FirstRand Insurance Limited.^[6]

FirstRand is listed as a "locally controlled bank" by the South African Reserve Bank, the national banking regulator.^[8] The Group has subsidiaries in South Africa and in the neighbouring countries of Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho and Zambia.^[9] First Rand also has interests in Australia and India.^[10] The Group has expressed interest in expanding its operations into Angola, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania.^[11] In May 2012, Kenyan press reports indicated that the group was making plans to expand into Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.^[12]

In November 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the first merchant banking licences in more than a decade to FirstRand Bank and another local firm.^[13]

Member companies[edit]

First Rand Group holds its investments through four main subsidiaries. These subsidiaries and their subsidiaries are therefore are members of the First Rand Group include, but are not limited to the following:^[14]

• FirstRand Bank Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa – A financial service institution providing comprehensive range of retail, commercial, corporate and investment banking services in South Africa and certain international markets. FirstRand Bank operates through three major divisions i.e.^[15]
  • First National Bank – FNB is the retail and commercial bank division of FirstRand Bank.
  • Rand Merchant Bank – RMB is the corporate and investment division of FirstRand Bank.
  • WesBank – Is the installment finance division of FirstRand Bank. WesBank is South Africa’s largest provider of loans for cars.^[16]
  • In addition to the three divisions, FirstRand Bank has branches in London and India,^[17] and representative offices in Kenya, Angola, Dubai and Shanghai.
  • Subsidiaries held by FirstRand Bank include:
    • FRB Representacoes E Participacoes – 100% Shareholding – Brazil – A fund management company.
    • Capricorn Fund Managers – 21% Shareholding – South Africa – A fund management company.
    • Truffle Asset Management – 44% Shareholding – South Africa – A fund management company.
• FirstRand Investment Holdings Proprietary Limited (FREMA) – 100% Shareholding – South Africa – A holding company for FirstRand Group's financial services companies in the rest of Africa and other emerging markets. Subsidiaries held through FREMA include:
  • FirstRand International (Mauritius) – 100% Shareholding – Mauritius – A holding company for African investments.
  • First National Bank Botswana Limited – 69% Shareholding – Botswana – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking. The bank is listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange.^[18]
  • First National Bank Lesotho Limited – 100% Shareholding – Lesotho – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking.
  • First National Bank Mozambique Limited – 90% Shareholding – Mozambique – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking.
  • First National Bank Namibia Limited – 58% Shareholding – Namibia – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking. The bank is listed on the Namibia Stock Exchange.
  • First National Bank Swaziland Limited – 100% Shareholding – Swaziland – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking.
  • First National Bank Tanzania Limited – 100% Shareholding – Tanzania – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking.
  • First National Bank Zambia Limited – 100% Shareholding – Zambia – A commercial bank providing retail and corporate banking.
  • RMB Nigeria – 100% – Shareholding – Nigeria – A corporate and investment bank in Nigeria.
• FirstRand Investment Holdings Proprietary Limited (FRIHL) – 100% Shareholding – South Africa – A holding company for FirstRand Group's other non-banking activities. Subsidiaries held through FRIHL include:
  • Direct Axis SA (Pty) Ltd – 66% Shareholding – South Africa – A specialist financial services firm that provides clients with personal loans, car loans, home loans and life insurance.^[19]
  • FirstRand International Limited – 100% Shareholding – Guernsey
  • RentWorks Africa (Pty) Ltd – 100% Shareholding – An asset rental company with subsidiaries in South Africa, Kenya, Namibia and Australia providing businesses with finance and operating leases.^[20]
  • RMB Private Equity Holdings (Pty) Ltd – 96% Shareholding – South Africa
  • RMB Private Equity (Pty) Ltd – 93% Shareholding – South Africa
  • RMB Securities (Pty) Ltd – 100% Shareholding – South Africa
  • RMB Morgan Stanley (Pty) Ltd – 50% Shareholding – South Africa – An investment bank in South Africa. A joint venture with Morgan Stanley.
  • RMB Australia Holdings Limited – 100% Shareholding – Australia – An investment bank in Australia.
• Ashburton Investments Holdings Limited (Ashburton) – 100% Shareholding – South Africa – This is FirstRand Group's asset management arm. Ashburton provides unique investment opportunities to individual and institutional investors and professional advisers. Ashburton has offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, United Arab Emirates and India. Subsidiaries held through Ashburton include:^[21]
  • Ashburton Fund Managers (Pty) Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa
  • Ashburton Investor Services (Pty) Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa
  • Ashburton Management Company (Pty) Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa
  • Ashburton Investments International Holdings Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa
  • RMB CIS Management Company (Pty) Limited – 100% Shareholding – South Africa

Ownership[edit]

FirstRand is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Namibian Stock Exchange. Its major shareholders include:^[22]

1→ RMB Holdings large shareholders include Directors and management of RMBH with 10.4%, Remgro with 27.9% shareholding in RMBH and Royal Bafokeng Holdings with a 15% stake in RMBH.

2→ Based on its direct and indirect shareholding in First Rand, Remgro's effective control of the group is 13.36%

External links[edit]

• Official website

See also[edit]

• List of banks in South Africa
• List of banks in Africa
• Reserve Bank of South Africa
• Rand Merchant Insurance Holdings

References[edit]