Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments
are backing one of Africa’s leading independent providers of
financial advice, retirement, investment, and wealth management
services, further deepening their presence and potential to impact
people’s lives across the continent
Prudential Financial, Inc. (Prudential Financial) (NYSE: PRU),
in partnership with LeapFrog Investments Group, Ltd. (LeapFrog
Investments), announced its intention to acquire a strategic
minority interest in Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited (JSE:
AFH), a leading provider of financial advice, retirement,
investment, and holistic wealth management services in South
Africa.
The transaction builds upon Prudential Financial’s partnership
with LeapFrog Investments to access high-growth financial services
markets in Africa and deliver essential financial tools to emerging
consumers. Since 2016, Prudential Financial and LeapFrog
Investments have invested in high-quality market leaders across the
African continent, including Enterprise Group in Ghana and ICEA
LION in Kenya.
“We are excited to broaden our presence in Africa and enter
South Africa with an investment in Alexander Forbes through our
partnership with LeapFrog Investments,” said Pavan Dhamija,
Prudential Financial’s regional president (Africa, India,
Indonesia, and Business Development). “This transaction underscores
Prudential’s continued focus on Africa as a strategically important
growth market and our vision to be a global leader in expanding
access to investing, insurance, and retirement security. We
identified Alexander Forbes as the market leader in South Africa
best capable of advancing our vision and strategy.”
Gary Herbert, COO and partner at LeapFrog Investments, stated,
“Through our strategic partnership with Prudential, we are backing
the exceptional team at Alexander Forbes to continue to provide
life-changing access to retirement and investment benefits in
Southern Africa. This investment reinforces our commitment to
deepening access to financial tools to generate prosperity for
consumers in emerging markets.”
“We are delighted to welcome long-term strategic shareholders of
the caliber of Prudential Financial and LeapFrog who believe in our
vision and support our strategy to achieve it. Their investment is
an affirmation of the impact that we make on people’s lives, the
quality of our team, and the potential that exists to unlock even
greater value for our stakeholders,” said Dawie de Villiers, CEO of
Alexander Forbes. “The conviction of our long-term strategic
shareholders, including ARC, can provide confidence to the market
in the investment case for Alexander Forbes as we accelerate our
transformation towards becoming the most impactful provider of
financial advice to institutional clients and individual customers.
It is an exciting development, and we look forward to leveraging
the global insights available through Prudential Financial to
enhance our value proposition.”
Under the terms of the transaction, Prudential Financial, with
LeapFrog Investments acting as the investment manager, will acquire
a minority interest in Alexander Forbes from Mercer.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other
customary closing conditions. LeapFrog’s appointment as investment
manager is subject to approval by the Mauritius Financial Services
Commission.
Deutsche Bank acted as financial advisor, and Cliffe Dekker
Hofmeyr Inc. and ENSafrica in South Africa and Debevoise &
Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisors to Prudential Financial and
LeapFrog Investments on the transaction. Standard Bank acted as
financial advisor, and Bowmans acted as legal advisor to Alexander
Forbes on the transaction.
About Prudential Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU),
a global financial services leader and premier active global
investment manager with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under
management as of Dec. 31, 2021, has operations in the United
States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and
talented employees help to make lives better by creating financial
opportunity for more people. Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has
stood for strength, stability, expertise, and innovation for more
than a century. For more information, please visit
news.prudential.com.
Prudential Financial is not affiliated in any manner with
Prudential plc, an international group incorporated in the United
Kingdom or the Prudential Assurance Company, a subsidiary of
M&G plc, a company incorporated in the United Kingdom.
About LeapFrog Investments LeapFrog invests in
exceptional businesses in Africa and Asia, partnering with their
leaders to achieve new levels of growth, profitability and impact.
Founded in 2007, LeapFrog’s companies now reach 272 million people
across 35 countries with healthcare or financial services,
providing jobs and livelihoods to 143,000 people. Through
consistent delivery on a strategy of Profit with Purpose, LeapFrog
has raised over $2 billion from global institutional investors,
including $500 million recently committed by Temasek. LeapFrog has
been ranked by Fortune as one of the top 5 Companies to Change the
World. For more information, please visit leapfroginvest.com.
About Alexander Forbes Alexander Forbes is a financial
services group that impacts people’s lives by delivering insight
and advice to individuals, employers and retirement funds.
Alexander Forbes is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and
headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Since its founding in 1935, Alexander Forbes has played an
integral role in South Africa’s financial services industry, having
built a leading brand synonymous with insight, advice, and impact.
The company has leveraged partnerships to provide specialist
consulting services across 32 African countries to efficiently
serve the holistic advice needs of multinational employers.
Alexander Forbes is a recognised leader across multiple lines of
business servicing over 4,500 corporates with over 1 million
members. Alexander Forbes Investments is the largest multi-manager
in South Africa with over R420 billion in assets under
administration and management. For more information, please visit
alexanderforbes.co.za.
Disclaimer Certain of the statements included in this
release, such as those regarding the expected transaction discussed
herein and Prudential’s strategy and growth prospects constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expects,”
“believes,” “anticipates,” “includes,” “plans,” “assumes,”
“estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “should,” “will,” “shall” or
variations of such words are generally part of forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on
management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future
developments and their potential effects upon Prudential Financial,
Inc. and its subsidiaries. There can be no assurance that future
developments affecting Prudential Financial, Inc. and its
subsidiaries will be those anticipated by management. These
forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future
performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and there are
certain important factors that could cause actual results to
differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates
reflected in such forward-looking statements. Certain important
factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly
materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such
forward-looking statements can be found in the “Risk Factors” and
“Forward-Looking Statements” sections included in Prudential’s
Annual Report on Form 10-K. Prudential does not undertake to update
any particular forward-looking statement included in this
release.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220317005954/en/
Media:
Prudential Financial: YeaJin Lee,
yeajin.lee@prudential.com, +1 862-343-0047
LeapFrog Investments: Paul Cohen, Milk & Honey PR,
paul@milkandhoneypr.com, +1 718 715 2107
Alexander Forbes: Zakira Amra, amraz@aforbes.com, +27 66
480 9193
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