Neo Khanyile and Renee Bonorchis
ANCHOR Group said it cancelled an agreement to buy Contego Holdings after it alleged the South African money manager failed to make disclosures that might affect the company.
“Despite the board’s confidence in Contego Asset Management and the funds they manage, the board will continue to take a firm stance where contracting parties fail to make material disclosures in acquisitions,” Johannesburg-based Anchor, which owns a money manager and brokerage, said yesterday.
“The Anchor Group board places great emphasis on reputation and the trust associated with our brand.”
Anchor also yesterday said it resigned as manager for three unit trusts it ran on an outsourced basis for Cape Town-based Clarus Asset Managers. Anchor made the announcement after OffshoreAlert, a Miami-based website, reported last week that former Clarus chief executive Cobus Kellermann was allegedly involved in irregularities.
Kellermann was not immediately contactable. Johan Theron, a lawyer representing Kellermann, said in response that he would discuss questions sent by Bloomberg with his client.
Anchor was in talks to buy Contego from Contego management and a trust that was controlled by Kellermann, Anchor finance director David Rosevear said yesterday. Anchor last week said it offered to pay R28 million in cash and stock for Contego.
Raging controversy
“Given the controversy that’s now raging, we just found it best to distance ourselves,” Rosevear said.
“Not from a good commercial reason, but we just don’t want to get dragged into things that in the long term, we just believe would not help us.”
Contego Asset Management chief executive JC Louw did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anchor’s stock dropped 5.42 percent, the biggest one-day decline since February 9, to R10.30. The shares have slid 14 percent this week.
MMI Holdings, South Africa’s third-largest insurer, last July ended a contract with Clarus as the investment manager of eight of its unit trusts, the companies said in separate statements this week.
The unit trusts are being transferred to Contego Asset Management.
Kellermann left Clarus soon after it was agreed last year that the funds would be moved to Contego, Hermann Labuschagne, the chief executive of Clarus, said on March on Tuesday.
Kellermann was not fired, he said, declining to give details on how to reach him.
Clarus, which is now just a shell company, will be closed down once the funds have been moved to Contego Asset Management. – Bloomberg