Liberty Life

In 1958, with just R58 000 as capital, one of South Africa's first financial services companies was born in the form of Liberty Life and just four years later in 1962, boasted assets in excess of R1 million and was listed on the South African Stock Exchange.

Almost 40 years later Liberty Life is still a household name in South Africa. Over the years it has earned itself a reputation as both a progressive and reliable South African financial services group, that offers a wide range of long-term insurance services and products to individuals and corporates.

As such, Liberty Life holds the distinction of being the 3rd biggest life insurance company in South Africa. With a market capitalisation of R20 billion this is not surprising, nor is Liberty Life's regular inclusion in the top 40 groups listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.

As a member of the Standard Bank group, Liberty Life prides itself on servicing the South African market through its health, tailored risk, retirement and investment products via its comprehensive network of licensed financial advisers.

In fact, after Liberty Life's acquisition of Capital Alliance Holdings Limited in April last year (2005), the entire group currently deals with over 1 million group scheme members, 3 million individual life policies, and has a staggering asset base to the tune of R140 billion.

However, in addition to Liberty Life's insurance services and products, the group has a thriving property division. Liberty Group Properties manages, develops and markets a rich portfolio of hotel, retail and commercial properties on behalf of Liberty Lifer.

Incredibly investment in 10 commercial properties comprises over 80% of Liberty Group Properties portfolio, including Sandton City and Eastgate Mall in Gauteng and Liberty Midlands Mall in KwaZulu Natal.

The majority of Liberty Life?s policy-backed assets are managed by STANLIB, a South African investment house established in 2002 through the merging of various wealth and asset management divisions of the Liberty Life and Standard Bank groups.

Liberty Life and Standard Bank each hold a 37,4% interest in STANLIB, while black empowerment group, Safika Holdings (Pty) Ltd holds the remaining 25,2%.