Group CEO, Amabubesi Group
Chairman, Vodacom
If you’re ambitious to succeed in business in South Africa, Chartered Accountancy seems the closest thing to a passport to success. “I believe we have more companies in South Africa led by Chartered Accountants than any other profession,” says Peter. “It’s uniquely the one qualification that trains you in the way of business. A lawyer, e.g., is trained in law – a Chartered Accountant is trained for business.”
Today, it’s Peter and fellow Chartered Accountant Sango Ntsaluba who are instrumental in driving South African business forward. The Amabubesi Group, which they founded in 2002, has been responsible for significant multi million rand investments in black economic empowerment. For more than a decade, the Group has supported enterprise and business across sectors, including construction, property, IT, financial services and healthcare. “It’s about transforming the South African economy to create a greater tomorrow for everyone,” says Peter. “The skills that Chartered Accountancy teaches certainly have a role to play in that.”
It’s a noble intention – but Peter admits that the initial appeal of becoming a Chartered Accountant was a little more basic. “KPMG came to do a presentation at my high school in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s and – to be honest – what attracted a lot of us as young people was what we could earn in the profession, we did not know of a profession that could pay us better once qualified.”
Tremendous experience
But the real satisfaction rapidly came with the insight into business that the profession offered. “I trained at KPMG in Zimbabwe and then joined Ernst & Young in Johannesburg. I was so fortunate because I got involved in a huge number of assignments – often international. Most assignments lasted for six weeks at most, so by the age of 20, I knew how banks worked, how manufacturers worked – how all kinds of businesses operated. Plus, I was able to interact with management of companies at the highest level – so it was a tremendous experience to have at an early age.”
Having joined Ernst & Young as a young auditor in 1991, his enthusiasm and hard work saw him rapidly rise the ranks, becoming a partner within three years. An achievement that’s all the more impressive given that he was to join the Executive Committee of the firm and was involved in dramatically overhauling its structure and direction, including the reduction in the number of partners from about 130 to just about 70 in 1997.
In 1997, he joined another firm about to undergo a dramatic transformation. Old Mutual, the venerable 150-year old South African insurance group was on the brink of demutualisation and, says Peter, was in deep need of a more commercially-minded approach. “When I joined, Old Mutual was trying to transform itself from a business run by actuaries, selling pensions and insurance, to one run by business people, delivering real client solutions and building deep relationships, and also delivering for shareholders.”
Starting in the employee benefits business, his extensive experience in building relationships with major corporate clients soon singled him out. Post-demutualisation, he was invited to become Deputy Managing Director for all operations in South Africa – a post he held for five years.
Being close to clients
His ability to relate to clients and manage business was soon to be tested to the full. He accepted the post of Chief Executive for Alexander Forbes, the international actuarial and consulting group, just as it was contending with shattering revelations of “bulking” within pension funds run by a subsidiary. “It was the biggest corporate scandal in South Africa at the time. To me, as a Chartered Accountant for whom ethical behaviour is second nature, it was unthinkable that we could have done this without proper disclosure to our clients. But we were able to weather the storm and bring the business back to profitability, largely by being close to our clients. It was a great lesson in just how vitally important it is to relate to your clients and put ethics right at the heart of whatever you do.”
Having established Amabubesi with Sango Ntsaluba and Thabiso Tlelai in 2002, he joined the business full time in 2008. “The beauty of having Chartered Accountants managing the business is that we can raise finance and structure our own deals – we don’t always need to hire specialists to do that for us. We often sit on the boards of the companies we invest in, we advise on strategy and we build very close relationships.”
And whereas traditional private equity and venture capital houses typically seek to exit their investments within five years, Amabubesi – Zulu for ‘pack of lions’ – is there for the long haul. Many of the companies Amabubesi invested in when the company first started, it still holds more than a decade later.
Multiple challenges
His skills as a business leader and developer are massively in demand as South Africa’s economy continues to power ahead. He serves on the board of insurance giant Liberty, and previously served on the boards of Pinnacle Technology Holdings and Transnet, South Africa’s leading logistics and transportation provider. Most high-profile of all, he is Chairman of Vodacom, part of UK telecoms giant Vodafone, serving 50 million mobile-phone users across South Africa and across the continent.
“I do think my early years as a Chartered Accountant, when I got to work with some many different companies, prepared me for what I have done later – it’s that ability to deal with multiple challenges and assignments, each with their own characteristics,” he observes. His uncompromising ethical stance has perhaps also played a role in his success: the chairmanship of Vodacom, for example, was offered after the company saw how he managed events at Alexander Forbes.
Business with a conscience
Today, he is ambitious to see both Amabubesi and Vodacom extend their reach and growth into other parts of Africa. He is also very focused on what he refers to ‘his duty to the nation’. Alongside Amabubesi’s extensive activities in charity and education, he is a director of Right to Care – the non-profit organisation that supports and delivers prevention, care, and treatment services for HIV and associated diseases. Reflecting his passion for ethics and good governance, he is also Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Auditor General’s office, which is ultimately responsible for audit across all of South Africa’s public sectors.
Looking forward, he views the skills of Chartered Accountancy as not only vital for business but the ongoing transformation of South Africa. “We need business leaders who have a conscience about our country, who understand their role in the wider society and how to advance it.”
Africa’s economic transformation is an ongoing story – and Chartered Accountants like Peter Moyo are clearly helping to write it.
