The Importance of Corporate Governance and Insights into SOEs

Sound corporate governance, the system by which companies are directed and controlled, is globally recognised as a critical requirement for successful growth and development. South Africa’s King Code of Corporate Governance, now in its fourth revision, is world leading and regarded as one of the most comprehensive approaches to governance worldwide. However, South Africa is experiencing significant wasteful and irregular expenditure of state funds where poor governance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) is impacting on our fiscus and financial flexibility. SOE performance is often cited as one of the key reasons for our national downgrade to sub-investment (junk) status, largely due to increasing risks associated with poor governance. But the problem is not confined to the public sector and large corporates are not immune. The corporate sector has also felt the negative impact of poor governance, evidenced by recent public exposure of unethical practices, resulting in share price and reputational deterioration.

Join us as we hear from Andrew Canter, CIO of Futuregrowth Asset Management, who honoured their fiduciary duty to investors when demanding greater transparency into the governance of some of the largest SOEs. He will share his insights regarding good and bad governance of SOEs, as well as capital market standards and lenders’ requirements from borrowers i.e. government. Bennie van Rooy, CFO of Land Bank, will then share his experience from the perspective of a SOE, regarding the challenges they generally face and the lessons they have specifically learnt being one of the SOEs that have managed to turn their governance around for the better.

About the Speakers

Andrew Canter

Andrew is the Chief Investment Officer at Futuregrowth Asset Management. He is the Chairman of both the Credit Committee and the Investment Committee and is involved in all material, strategic and operational decisions. He oversees the investment processes, sets manager mandates, monitors compliance and reviews fund exposures and performance. Andrew joined Futuregrowth in 1998 after co-founding RMB Asset Management where he was a fixed interest dealer and fund manager from 1990 to 1998.

Bennie van Rooy

Bennie is the Chief Financial Officer of the Land Bank. Since joining the bank from JD Group in June 2015, he has had a strong track record of successes that include the restructuring of bank and corporate Balance sheets, successfully implementing ERP systems, product development, mergers and acquisitions, distressed asset restructuring, developing and promoting talented staff to executive positions, implementing innovative funding and debt structures and the implementation of the Basel II and III capital management and funding principles.