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Largest securities firm in SA is born
FINANCIAL SERVICES
THE rationalisation in the financial services sector continued apace this week with two stockbroking firms, BOE Securities and SMK Securities, announcing a merger to create the largest SA-controlled securities company. The merger will allow the new firm, to be known as BOE Securities, "to continue successfully competing with the international names that have become major players in the SA securities market," said Tom Boardman, chief executive officer of BOE Investment Bank. "The idea is not to downsize, but to have a far stronger securities firm in a world of intense competition, deregulation and rapid technological change," said Louis Geldenhuys, present MD of SMK, adding that the two firms had different strengths which would "dovetail" in the enlarged BOE Securities. The new firm will have equity, bond and macroeconomic research functions to serve the institutional market. It also aims to provide "extensive cover of the equity market", focusing particularly on mining, banks and insurance, technology, chemicals and oils and those companies that the firm has business relationships with. It will have nine branches countrywide. BOE and SMK said Geldenhuys would be MD of the firm while BOE Securities' present MD, Philip Wessels, would join BOE Investment Bank as executive director and chief operating officer. The two firms said RBC Dominion, the investment banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, would as a result of the merger acquire a substantial minority stake in BOE Securities. The deal, subject to approval by the JSE and the Reserve Bank, will be effective March 1, although the actual merger will take place in a couple of weeks.
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