JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - JUNE 9: Laurie Dippenaar, the former CEO of FirstRand stands on a terrace outside his house on June 9, 2008 in Bryanstown outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Dippenaar started out with about $US 10.000 in 1977 and he is now one of the South Africa's wealthiest men. He started FirstRand group, one of the largest financial institutions in the country. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - JUNE 9: Laurie Dippenaar, the former CEO of FirstRand stands outside his house on June 9, 2008 in Bryanstown outside Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Dippenaar started out with about $US 10.000 in 1977 and he is now one of the South Africa's wealthiest men. He started FirstRand group, one of the largest financial institutions in the country. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
Laurie Dippenaar was one of the founders of RMB holdings and owns a 7.5% stake in RMB holdings which alone is worth over R2.5 bn (as at 07/12/2009). He was also one of the people responsible for putting together the FirstRand group and the guy who identified Adrian Gore's idea as a winning one. You might know the company as Discovery. Laurie Dippenaar has become one of the most prominent businessmen in South Africa and has made his mark on the financial services industry. He is also proudly South African.
 |  If Dippenaar's involved it's always a big dealLAURIE DIPPENAARLaurie Dippenaar became the chief executive of FirstRand on April 1 after Rand Merchant Bank - a group he co-founded from scratch in 1977 - made its third landmark deal in 21 years in merging with Anglo American Corporation's financial services interests in First National Bank and Southern Life. "We don't do many deals, but they tend to be big ones when we do them," says Dippenaar, who describes himself as an accountant by training but not by nature. During three years as an investigating accountant at the Industrial Development Corporation he met Paul Harris, now at the helm of Rand Merchant Bank. Harris had studied at Stellenbosch with FirstRand chairman GT Ferreira. Dippenaar and Ferreira established Rand Consolidated Investments, which specialised in leveraged leasing for public utilities. Harris joined a year later and, by 1984, the group was not only thriving but in need of the next logical step - a banking licence. This came about through the purchase of Rand Merchant Bank from Rembrandt's Rupert family, Johann having been a Stellenbosch colleague. The next milestone came in 1992 when RMB bought the underperforming Momentum Life and turned it into a highly efficient player. Six years down the path Anglo put a for-sale sign outside its financial investments and RMB won the nod for what has become the country's largest financial services grouping - FirstRand has a market capitalisation of some R30-billion. Dippenaar competed in this year's Argus cycle race in the Cape with a cellphone, helping to raise the R5-billion needed to effect the FirstRand deal. It was done in a day, a testimony to RMB's reputation and credibility. While many aspects of merging the two parties have gone better than expected, notably key staff placements, Dippenaar jokes that during the first year with any new baby, everybody asks themselves why they did it. "The bonding process takes about 18 months. When we bought Momentum, I did not notice that I referred to the Momentum staff as "you" and not "we". But by the time they became we, Momentum had become first-league players." Co-ownership has been a core of the RMB philosophy and Dippenaar is aware that many FirstRand staff borrowed to take up shares in the new group, only to see the market value of that investment halve. "While it would be disconcerting if it were only our share that had fallen, there is not much we can do if the market has rerated the whole financial services sector to a lower price:earnings ratio than before the bear market. It is one of the risks of ownership and I can only say let's beaver away. Sooner or later the share price will reflect value." Dippenaar's task is to introduce the RMB business philosophy to the newcomers. "To infuse a new culture, a new coach is needed. Our style is that the man in the chair does not dictate and must be challenged. Otherwise, nothing grows under the big oak," he says, not specifying whether he means "oak" or "oke". "I tell my staff it is like a fancy-dress party. I can choose the theme, but not the costumes: I need their ideas and innovations." Dippenaar believes the building blocks for a strong FirstRand are already on site, they merely require rearranging. Dippenaar is married to Estelle, a Stellenbosch law and economics graduate, and they have three children. "I come from an English-speaking home, but my father was a strong believer in bilingualism and we are the same." Dippenaar comments that both parents and two siblings are doctors: "I grew up on dinner-table talk of gall bladders and livers." He preferred the footsteps of his grandfather, a lawyer and businessman. Dippenaar sits on the boards of the schools his children attend as well as his alma mater. Julie Walker Top |
 Laurie Dippenaar is the Businessman of the YearLAURIE Dippenaar was named Businessman of the Year at the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies banquet this week.He was by far the winner from a poll of chief executives of last year's top 100 survey finishers. This year's survey comes to you in this week's Sunday Times. This year, from the saddle of his bicycle while competing in the Argus race around Chapman's Peak, Dippenaar secured the funding necessary for the R60-billion deal in which Anglo American entrusted management control of its financial services investments, Southern Life and First National Bank, to the Rand Merchant Bank/Momentum team. Dippenaar became chief executive of the merged group, now called FirstRand. The story began 21 years ago when GT Ferreira, Dick Goss and Dippenaar formed Rand Consolidated Acceptances. Paul Harris joined a year later, and in 1984, the company bought Rand Merchant Bank from Johann Rupert. Eight years on, RMB bought Momentum Life, and Dippenaar was despatched to look after Momentum, which he steered to robust health and a top 10 placing in the Business Times Top 100 companies a year ago. "We don't do many deals," says Dippenaar, but when we do them, they are big ones." Furniture retailer Profurn was the top-performing share in the five years ending September 30 1998 and the winner of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies award for 1998. The award is based on total investment return to shareholders, including capital appreciation and dividends. A R10 000 investment in Profurn had grown into R277 725 during the period - a compound rate of return of more than 90% a year. Accepting the award on behalf of Profurn, chairman Gerald Rubenstein said it was a fantastic tribute to the efforts of everyone at the company that Profurn had achieved this honour. Profurn's parent, Supreme, was liquidated in 1992 and it faced the prospect of being sold off to pay creditors. Profurn has prospered locally and on the continent, turning over more than R1-billion from nearly 300 SA stores and more than 100 in eight African countries. It has a market capitalisation of R2.7-billion . In second place was Tiger Wheels; Gencor was third and Dimension Data fourth - the sixth year in succession it has made the top 10. |
GT Ferreira Maarten Mittner Thursday, 20 Oct 2011 FirstRand’s founders may have taken a back-seat role at the bank, but they are still involved in its future and rightly proud of what they have achieved. | ||
 The creators of FirstRand - Laurie Dippenaar, GT Ferreira and Paul Harris - are rightly proud of what they have achieved. From a small merchant bank in the late 1970s and with only R10000 capital, they built a huge financial conglomerate affecting the lives of nearly every South African. In the process they gained vast personal wealth for themselves. But they have been sensitive to criticism that more could be shared with shareholders and management. A programme has been put in place whereby parts of their personal shareholdings in FirstRand are being sold to present management, so preparing a new generation of entrepreneurs to continue building on what they created. The most recent rich-list compiled by Business Times places Dippenaar as the fifth-wealthiest individual in the country. A simple calculation of his 2,3% interest in FirstRand, and his 6,4% in Rand Merchant Bank Holdings (RMBH), shows his personal worth at R5,2bn. Dippenaar, however, disputes the figure and says his direct and indirect beneficial shareholding in FirstRand amounts to 3,56m shares. “That represents the full amount of my shareholding in the group.” The additional 126,9m FirstRand shares he holds, but identified as “indirect through RMBH”, are the shares he owns through his 90,6m RMBH shares. “This look-through was incorrectly interpreted and caused a double count.” He is, however, not willing to do the arithmetic to settle the controversy and states he is not really interested in the rankings. “They are somewhat meaningless as they reflect only information in the public domain and do not take into account unlisted shares and property portfolios.” If the “look-through” shareholding is excluded, it could mean that Dippenaar’s present wealth could have been overstated by roughly R2bn. However, the Business Times calculations exclude Dippenaar’s interest of roughly 6% in RMI Holdings, the holding company of MMI Holdings which manages FirstRand’s previous insurance interests in Momentum and Outsurance. This could add at least another R1,2bn at today’s share price to his personal wealth. Dippenaar is nonexecutive chairman of MMI Holdings. Though not comparable with Dippenaar’s, Ferreira and Harris also hold sizeable interests in FirstRand-related companies. Ferreira has divested himself from FirstRand but is still nonexecutive chairman of RMBH, owning 6,18% of its shares worth more than R2,4bn. Harris’s fortune is estimated at R1,7bn through his 2,13% interest in RMBH and 0,81% in FirstRand. The fourth founding father , Pat Goss, is usually excluded from the group but has been quietly amassing a small fortune of more than R600m in the past decade as a FirstRand director. His connection with the three dates back to the days when he and Dippenaar worked at the Industrial Development Corp. The interests of the founders , together with their present nonexecutive role in the company, is not without controversy. The King 3 recommendations state it is preferable that an independent nonexecutive director should be someone who does not represent a controlling or major shareholding. “He should not have a direct or indirect interest in the company.” Dippenaar’s reaction is that they have never projected themselves as “independent” nonexecutives. They strongly emphasise their nonexecutive roles which, he believes, are not in conflict with the King code . Dippenaar says the reality is that he is nonexecutive, even more so because he was in a nonexecutive role at FirstRand for three years between 2005 and 2008 before he assumed the chairmanship of the group. “ Paul Harris and I are nonexecutive directors only, with GT not even sitting on the FirstRand board any longer.” He will put suggestions to CEO Sizwe Nxasana and COO Johan Burger at times. “I am available to the senior management team of FirstRand as a sounding board on any strategic issue, should they wish to engage with me.” Nxasana, Burger, Peter Cooper as CEO of RMBH and Michael Jordaan as FNB CEO have all been purchasers of shares that have been made available to them by the founders . To date these amount to R398,4m, which pales in comparison with the nearly R10bn that Dippenaar, Harris and Ferreira own. Dippenaar is reticent about providing information about his private life, in contrast with Ferreira and Harris who have extensive private interests. Dippenaar is a Springbok rugby fan and attended the World Cup rugby in New Zealand. He is also a fan of investment guru Warren Buffett and clearly emulates Buffett’s successful long-term approach to investing. Dippenaar has indicated that he is not planning to relinquish his nonexecutive chairmanship within the next five years at least. Ferreira’s focus is on his wine interests and his estate, Tokara, near Franschhoek . Of the three he has the least exposure to the group’s activities and usually visits the Sandton office once a week, which has, according to some sources, become even less regular . He has been the nonexecutive chair of RMB Holdings since 1987. Harris, known as the out-of-the box thinker, has extensive art interests but also has time for other activities, including accepting an honorary professorship in business management at the University of Stellenbosch. He was also involved in the management of Cricket SA. |
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