Three months after he was fired as chief executive of Old Mutual South Africa, Peter Moyo has been dealt a further blow after the insurer announced it is pulling its investment in a business he co-founded.
Investment holding company NMT Capital lists Old Mutual Life Assurance Company on its website as “the only institutional investor in the group”.
But Old Mutual’s interim results statement, published on 2 September, announced that “the board has communicated its intentions to NMT and is in the process of exiting this investment”.
It added that negotiations are at an early stage and the timing is yet to be determined.
Moyo owns around 25% of the business, while Old Mutual has a 20% stake.
Known issue
According to Old Mutual, Moyo’s suspension and subsequent sacking “was a result of a material breakdown of trust and confidence, which occurred due to the management of conflicts of interest in business relations with related parties”.
Something that Moyo strongly disputes.
“The starting point is that the relationship with Old Mutual and NMT goes back to 2005. At the time that I joined Old Mutual in 2017, the relationship was already in place.
“We entered into a separate agreement, as part of my employment contract, on how we managed the conflict of interest is it ever arose between Old Mutual and I.”
Dividend drama
In a further twist, Old Mutual stated that it has been made aware that the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa has raised a dispute with NMT over the payment of the ordinary dividend in 2018.
According to the interim statement, IDC viewed it to be unlawful.
As a result, Old Mutual has transferred ZAR21m (£1.13m, $1.37m, €1.25m) into an independently managed trust account, pending the resolution of the dispute.
Conflict resolution
The battle between Moyo and Old Mutual continues to rage, with the insurer sacking its former chief executive for a second time in late August.
This was despite Moyo triumphing in court several weeks previously, with the judge ruling his dismissal had been unlawful.
Old Mutual
The Old Mutual South Africa business split from the group following the managed separation that was first announced in March 2016.
The move saw Nedbank and Old Mutual in South Africa spun out, while the UK wealth management business rebranded as Quilter and the single-strategy arm of Old Mutual Global Investors was sold and named Merian.
The legal fight between Moyo and Old Mutual has no connection to Quilter or Old Mutual International, which has yet to adopt the group’s branding.
