RMB Holdings Limited (RMBH), previously known as Rand Merchant Bank Holdings, is a South African diversified

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Overview

RMB Holdings is listed on the JSE with its headquarters in

Sandton, South Africa Sandton is an upscale commercial and residential district north of the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. It forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. The name of the city came from the combination of two of its suburbs, ...

History

RMB Holdings traces its roots from Rand Consolidated Investments (RCI) and Rand Merchant Bank that were founded in 1977 and 1968 respectively. RCI was co-founded by Paul Harris,

Gerrit Ferreira Gerrit Thomas Ferreira also known as GT Ferreira is a South African billionaire businessman, investor and banker who is one of the founders of FirstRand Limited. Biography Gerrit Ferreira got his MBA degree from University of Stellenbosch. In 1 ...

and

Lauritz Dippenaar Lauritz "Laurie" Dippenaar is a South African millionaire, businessman, investor, and banker who was the Chairman of FirstRand Financial Group. He is also well known for his philanthropic activities and runs a scholarship programme through his ...

. Its objective was to offer leveraged leasing and off-balance-sheet financing to businesses. RCI failed to secure a banking licence, this led to the firm joining forces with Johann Rupert's Rand Merchant Bank in 1985. The newly created entity took up the Rand Merchant Bank name.

1987 to 2010

In 1987, RMB Holdings was found as the holding company for the expanding

Rand Merchant Bank 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, ...

. RMB Holdings was listed through a reverse listing when it took control of Momentum Life on 1 July 1992. RMB Holdings acquired 30% and 28.7% stake in Momentum Life from ABSA and

Remgro Remgro Limited is an investment holding company based in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It has interests in banking, financial services, packaging, glass products, medical services, mining, petroleum, beverage, food and personal care products. In ...

respectively. RMB Holdings also transferred its entire stake in Rand Merchant Bank to Momentum thereby increasing its stake in Momentum Life to 76.4%. In the same year, the group founded

Discovery Limited Discovery Limited is a South Africa-based financial services group that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) with its headquarters in Sandton. Overview Discovery Limited engages in long and short-term insurance, asset managem ...

along with Adrian Gore as a subsidiary of Momentum Life. On February 28, 1998 the group founded OUTsurance, a short-term insurance company. In April 1998, RMB Holdings entered into an agreement with Anglo American Corporation of South Africa (now

Anglo American plc Anglo American plc is a British listed multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, n ...

) to merge their financial services into a unified group. This merger gave rise to

First Rand 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, ...

and was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on May 25, 1998, with Anglo American and RMB Holdings owning 20.43% and 25.03% of the authorized capital of FirstRand respectively. FirstRand had two main subsidiaries i.e. FirstRand Bank and FirstRand Insurance, holding banking and insurance investments respectively.

2011 to date

On March 31, 2010, Momentum merged with Metropolitan Holdings to form MMI Holdings. This followed an agreement between the boards of Metropolitan Holdings, First Rand and Momentum Group. In March 2011, RMB Holdings'','' Remgro and FirstRand entered into an agreement to restructure their insurance assets. This was done by spanning off their entire insurance portfolios (i.e. MMI Holdings, Discovery Limited, OUTsurance and RMB-SI Investments) to RMI Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of RMB Holdings and subsequently

unbundling Unbundling is a neologism to describe how the ubiquity of mobile devices, Internet connectivity, consumer web technologies, social media and information access in the 21st century is affecting older institutions (education, broadcasting, newsp ...

the entire shareholding in RMI Holdings to their shareholders. This restructure was completed on 7 March 2011. The shares of RMIH started trading at the JSE on the same da
RMB Structured Insurance Limited

underwrites Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabili ...

customer policy benefits for Prime Meridian Direct (Pty) Ltd. After the RMI Holdings spin-off, the firm remained as a bank holding company.

Investments

RMB Holdings' investment include: * RMB Property – 100% Shareholding – This is the property arm of RMB Holding. It holds the following investments: ** Atterbury – 27.5% Shareholding – Atterbury is a developer of prime commercial, retail and industrial property across South Africa such as

Mall of Africa Mall of Africa is a shopping mall located in Waterfall City, Midrand, Gauteng. It is the third largest single-phase shopping mall to be built in Africa, but smaller than Gateway, Sandton City, Menlyn Park and Fourways Mall. The total retail a ...

, the rest of Africa and Europe. ** Propertuity – 34% Shareholding – Founded by Jonathan Liebmann, Propertuity is focused on the redevelopment of dilapidated industrial and office areas in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

and

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

. RMB Holdings previously held a 34.1% stake in FirstRand which it unbundled to its shareholders in June 2020. This left the holding company with its property portfolio listed above as its only investments. Its stock is listed on the JSE and the

Namibian Stock Exchange The Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) ( af, Namibiese Effektebeurs; german: Börse Namibia) is the only stock exchange in Namibia. Based in Windhoek, it is one of the largest stock exchanges on the African continent. It has a partnership with JSE ...

Ownership

The shares of RMB Holdings are listed on the JSE. the shareholding of RMB Holdings was as follows:

Governance

RMB Holdings is governed by a sixteen-person board of directors with Gerrit Thomas Ferreira as the chairman of the board and Dalu Ajene as the CEO. This structure is similar to that of RMI Holdings since the two firms same their management team and resources under a management contract.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Banks of South Africa Companies based in Sandton Insurance companies of South Africa Financial services companies established in 1987 Banks established in 1987 Companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Financial services companies of South Africa