Ex-Deutsche SA boss to run R106bn RMI/RMH

RMB Holdings (RMH) and Rand Merchant Insurance Holdings (RMI), worth over R100bn combined, have appointed former Deutsche Bank CEO Herman Bosman as CEO-designate. He will succeed Peter Cooper, who will be retiring from his executive positions at the end of 2014, after 22 years with the group.

RMH owns 34% of FirstRand and in 2011 spun out its insurance assets into separately listed RMI which owns 83% of OUTsurance, 25% of Discovery, 25% of MMI and 76% of RMB Structured Insurance. Core shareholders of the two groups are Remgro, Royal Bafokeng Holdings and GT Ferreira, Laurie Dippenaar and Paul Harris, the founders of RMH.

Bosman (45) joins the RMH and RMI boards on 31 March 2014 as CEO designate of both companies. He holds an LLM degree (cum laude) from the University of Johannesburg and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He served as Chief Executive of Deutsche Bank South Africa from 2006 to 2013. Prior to that he was in the employ of Rand Merchant Bank for twelve years and ultimately headed up its corporate finance practice between 2000 and 2006.  Bosman serves on the Board of Governors of the University of Johannesburg and is a director of Business and Arts South Africa.

GT Ferreira, Chairman of both RMH and RMI said: "During the last two decades RMH had the luxury of being able to dedicate Peter's efforts almost exclusively to our group structure and shareholder matters.   We have now pleasingly arrived at a point where shareholders have a clear view of where they are invested and, in the case of RMI in particular, we are getting ready to actively build out its investment portfolio.

"I have often compared executive succession as being akin to a relay race, with one generation passing the baton to the next, while running together for part of the race.  In this hand-over we arenot only achieving that, but also have the benefit of knowing the new runner as a result of having worked with him while he was in the group's employ, and also from having benefited from his professional advice on transactions we concluded while he was away from the group."