Nedbank boss jets in

part of his annual staff visits.
Mr Brown and his executive team touched down yesterday and were expected to meet staff and the board members of the MBCA Bank in Zimbabwe.

MBCA spokesperson Ms Dedrey Mutimutema yesterday said the visit by Mr Brown was part of the bank’s vision to build the “most admired” bank in Africa.
“For the second consecutive year, Mr Brown together with members of the executive team will visit MBCA staff as part of the annual road show,” she said.
She added that the visit served to affirm Nedbank’s strategy and vision around its financial performance and update staff on operations across Africa.

Mr Brown first visited when he came to brief staff on the group’s financial performance, its vision and plans by HSBC to acquire Nedbank.
Nedbank last year bulked up its stake in MBCA Bank from 50 percent to about 74 percent after following its rights for the recapitalisation of the local bank to the tune of US$12,5 million as required by the central bank.

And as it increased its investment in the local bank the United Kingdom’s HSBC were planning to swoop on the bank in a US$7 billion deal. Had the HSBC-Nedbank deal gone through the UK firm would have gained indirect control of MBCA through Nedbank’s stake in the local bank.

HSBC had sought to acquire Old Mutual Plc’s 53 percent stake in Nedbank and planned to increase the stake in the South African bank to 70 percent.
But HSBC pulled out in October last year after a due diligence revealed Nedbank did not meet its corporate fit and expected value for shareholders.

There had been scepticism about the success of discussions between Nedbank and HSBC in the wake of alleged regulatory concerns as South African authorities felt foreign control brought risk unto the country.

HSBC bank’s failure to acquire Nedbank was seen as an opportunity to Standard Charted Bank, another British company, which had been competing with the conglomerate to acquire one of South Africa’s biggest banks.

HSBC Holdings Plc is the London Stock Exchange-listed parent firm of the HSBC Group, which has operations in a total of 87 countries spanning across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Americas, Middle East and Africa.

With an asset base of US$2,4 trillion as of June 30 2010 HSBC Holdings is one of the largest banking and financial services companies in the world.