AFRICA

SOUTH AFRICA

Shanduka Group WINNER:

David Ngobeni

David Ngobeni, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Shanduka Group

There are few things that energise David Ngobeni more than growth. As chief investment officer and chief financial officer of South Africa’s Shanduka Group, Ngobeni is expected to oversee an ambitious growth programme to 2020.

Founded in 2001 as a black-owned investment holding company, Shanduka is invested in a diverse portfolio of listed and unlisted companies, with key holdings in the resources and food and beverage industries. Shanduka is also invested in the financial services, energy, telecoms, property and industrial sectors. The group has investments in South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius, Ghana and Nigeria.

The company's investment philosophy rests on partnering with firms that have a history of delivering profitable earnings and capable management teams that embrace transformation.

Over the last ten years, the company has achieved a compound annual growth rate of 42%. Ngobeni has been handed the challenge of sustaining this momentum. Appointed to the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2010, Ngobeni was recently made Chief Investment Officer (CIO), a move that that recognises the strategic contribution he has to make to the success of the business.

After completing articles with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ngobeni joined Standard Bank Corporate and Investment

Banking where he started his investment banking career in the structured debt finance division. In this division, he performed financial modelling, deal structuring and administration of structured finance deals. He later moved to the strategic investment division where he originated and implemented strategic equity and mezzanine investments for the bank. Ngobeni received an award from Standard Bank for being one of the best investment banking managers in 2006. Ngobeni was key in structuring aircraft finance of US$2 billion for South African Airways that saved the bank over R150 million.

His bank experience provided an important platform for his work at Shanduka, where he has succeeded in reducing the cost of capital from 30% to 9% in just three years.

Ngobeni qualified as a chartered accountant in 2003, completed course work towards an Mcom Tax and has successfully completed CFA Level II. He is a director of several Shanduka investee companies.

Ngobeni can count several significant achievements since he joined Shanduka. He assisted Shanduka CEO Phuti Mahanyele negotiate the acquisition of a 25% stake in Shanduka by the China Investment Corporation (CIC), China’s sovereign wealth fund. It acquired its shares primarily from exiting shareholders. According to Mahanyele: “This investment benefits Shanduka largely in terms of valuable

68 Finance Monthly CeO AwArdS 2013

strategic input of one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds. The transaction is expected to further enhance Shanduka’s growth trajectory over the next decade with the support of committed and long-term investors.”

As part of his brief to facilitate the growth of the company, Ngobeni has negotiated and implemented the raising of over R6 billion acquisition capital over the past three years. He has also achieved over R1 billion in finance cost savings by negotiating refinancing of expensive funding.

In the role of CFO, and now in the position of CIO, Ngobeni has been able to match his finance acumen with strategic vision.

“The diversity of Shanduka’s investments – and its increasingly operational role in key sectors – means that I have been more engaged with the broad spectrum of business activities than in the traditional CFO role,” Ngobeni says. “This has immeasurably enhanced the contribution I’m able to make.”

He believes the role of the chief financial officer has become more pro-active in recent years, where in the past it was often reactive: “The CFOs of operational companies in particular have become much more involved in the introduction of processes that improve operational efficiency than just reporting on historical performance, which has made them strategic partners to the CEOs.”