Alexander Forbes plans strategic inorganic expansion

South African financial advisory firm Alexander Forbes has declared its intentions to pursue inorganic growth when it comes to its consulting and administrative capacity. The firm has assured that additional capital gained in the growth process will be distributed among shareholders. 

The firm began a new chapter last year following a change of leadership, which sought to shift the focus towards the firm’s existing pool of clients, and withdraw from high expenditure operations. As a result, the firm closed down its operations in Uganda and Zambia.

In other areas, the firm’s growth drive has continued. Alexander Forbes has been looking to develop a pan-African profile in recent years, which has resulted in a number of partnerships and acquisitions. One prominent move was a collaboration forged with global financial advisory firm Mercer to provide financial services in Kenya.

The firm also moved to bolster its financial services advisory practice in South Africa last year, through a partnership with Evo Financial Services in March. Evo is a healthcare solutions company that offers a variety of services, including corporate consulting solutions, health risk management services and actuarial services.

Healthcare is among the more prominent sectors under development in South Africa at present, and Alexander Forbes’ entry into the market is representative of broader efforts being pursued by the firm.  Bloomberg reports that Alexander Forbes is looking to consolidate its presence in existing markets, while simultaneously pursuing acquisition.

South Africa is home to 95% of the firm’s business activity, indicating that the expansion activity might be centred in the country. The primary objective behind the new planned acquisitions is to strengthen the firm’s capabiltiies in the consulting and administrative space.

“We will start looking outside for growth. We have done the sales now, so 2020 will be about the acquisitions and that is key for us,” said CEO of Alexander Forbes Dawie de Villiers to Bloomberg.

“We are looking at a few smaller deals, mainly to get our foot in the door and see how we can execute on them, but obviously to make a bigger impact we need to look at some bigger deals and we are also busy discussing that,” he added. The firm is expaected to rely on creditors to back the new transactions.