South African M&A team closes significant transaction for Sanlam

Lawyers in our South African M&A team have announced the closure of a major transaction for Sanlam, where Sanlam and Absa officially combined their investment businesses to create the second largest asset manager in South Africa.

The new company, to be born from this merger – which comprised Absa Asset Management, Absa Alternative Asset Management, Absa Fund Managers and Absa Multi-Management – will have assets worth more than R1 trillion.

We concluded the deal and our client announced they had met all the conditions, allowing them to launch the new asset management venture, Sanlam Investment Holdings Proprietary Limited (SIH), on 1 December.

Sanlam Investment Group CEO, Carl Roothman told the media that Sanlam and Absa clients will gain from the enhanced investment offering and that the partnership will allow them to deliver investment solutions that sustain future generations.

Stephen Kennedy-Good, practice group leader for Corporate M&A said:

This deal displays our teams’ ability to handle complex and significant M&A deals – congratulations to Willem de Villiers, Dillon Harris and Cameron Bernhardt for their contributions to this result.