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By Alec Hogg
South African insurance entrepreneur Douw Steyn is back in the UK spotlight this morning after news broke that his BGL Group, which owns the country’s leading insurance comparison website, is preparing for a listing on the London Stock Exchange.
On a line through listed direct competitor, Moneysupermarket.com, BGL, whose comparethemarket.com is one of the strongest brands in the UK, is valued at £2bn (R40bn). Steyn and his long-time right hand man Stephen Klinkert started and built the company, but they now share control with the Enthovens, another South African family which is well known in the UK through its ownership of the Nando’s chicken chain.
Over the weekend, The Telegraph newspaper reported Steyn’s company is busy with a “beauty parade” of investment banks in preparation for a listing in early 2017. This is the first major flotation proposed since the Brexit shock.
BGL’s flagship brand is a major UK advertiser using puppets based on South African Meerkats to advertise its products in a similar way to how Warren Buffett’s GEICO uses the gecko lizard in the USA. The company also runs the UK offshoots of insurance brands Budget and Dial Direct which are well known in SA.
In an interview with Biznews in September last year, BGL CEO Matthew Donaldson told us the group dominates its space with 41% of the UK online insurance market.
He added that the Peterborough-based outfit is proud of its roots: “There’s a lot of South Africa in BGL, no doubt about it. I think the bullishness, the bravery, the creativity, the innovation – the times I’ve been in South Africa absolutely speaks to the culture of our organisation.
Douw himself, and indeed many others, including Steven Klinkert are great South Africans in their own right, and they’ve clearly brought a lot of that into the business.”
The Telegraph says BGL has appointed two high profile non executive directors to its board in anticipation of the listing: former Barclays and now Blackstone executive Jitesh Gadhia and the chairperson of the giant medical aid provider Bupa Insurance, Robin Phipps (84 000 staff; 32m customers). Although Steyn does not serve on the board, Klinkert is among the eight directors.
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