Insurer Liberty Holdings, which is wholly owned by the Standard Bank Group, may restructure parts of its operations, including its health business, as turnaround efforts have been “largely unsuccessful”, it says.
The company told staff its health business has been loss-making for years, and that it was thus “contemplating the restructure and/or closure of Liberty Health” and that a formal S189A process would start, reports MoneyWeb.
Year-to-date losses had been “R25m greater than what was budgeted, with further losses anticipated due to various factors”.
Liberty confirmed to Moneyweb that it was “in the process of reviewing its operating model in non-advice sales channels and its health business unit, Liberty Health”.
The company had embarked on a turnaround strategy in March 2017 after Standard Bank stepped in and devised an action plan to assist the insurer with some of its challenges.
At that point, Liberty was a subsidiary of Standard Bank and had a separate listing on the JSE.
In 2021, Standard Bank bought 100% of Liberty Holdings, which then delisted from the JSE and became a full subsidiary of the bank.
An employee at Liberty Health told Moneyweb that staff were told on 23 May during an internal meeting that about 200 employees might be affected by the restructuring process.
According to Liberty, its in-country operations outside South Africa are not affected by the business review process. The company has operations in Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia.
It will hold another group consultation session on 1 July where affected employees will get the chance to present alternatives or counter-proposals.
MoneyWeb article – Liberty may close its health business (Open access)
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