Published: 18 June 2018

ALEXANDER Forbes Group Holdings Limited chief executive officer Andrew Darfoor says acquiring African Actuarial Consultants (AAC) will grow his company into a regional powerhouse in actuarial consultancy in the region. B

"We have taken a significant share in the business (AAC) and the emphasis is that we want to create a regional actuarial consultancy firm leader across insurance, actuarial, risk and regulatory. So, we are looking to invest in the business to support them to grow not only in Zimbabwe but become a regional player," Darfoor told reporters on Friday.

". . . I think we are optimistic and are glad we made the investment. We are going to invest more and we think it is the right time for Alexander Forbes to be in Zimbabwe. Earlier this morning, we met clients and future client prospects and there is so much optimism into the future so we are very happy about that optimism to be able to invest."

He said their entry bode well with the fact that elections to be held in the next few weeks are expected to put the country in the right direction.

"I think for us what we tend to do is our entry point generally is in what we call employee benefits of which this is part of employee benefits so we start that, but we are looking to support our clients better. For example, in South Africa, we have short and long terms insurance, wealth management, asset management, and pension administration. The ultimate model is that in every country we want to have that four way integration," Dafoor said.

The Alexander Forbes boss is in the country to meet regulators and clients after the acquisition of AAC received all the necessary regulatory approvals. The acquisition of AAC by Alexander Forbes Group took place in June 2017. AAC is a former subsidiary of stock exchange-listed First Mutual Holdings. With the coming on board of Alexander Forbes, AAC will target corporates and individuals in offering actuarial services through discussing the employee benefits for companies and pension funds.

AAC provides specialised, independent and objective advice to financial institutions locally and in Africa along with offering clients actuarial and advisory services that aim to deliver value beyond the traditional actuarial brief. Alexander Forbes is a specialised financial services group with its head office in South Africa and has operations in at least eight other African countries.

- newsday