Black brokers seek stake in white-owned firms

Black brokers are in talks with the South African insurance companies over plans to buy black economic empowerment, or BEE, stakes in white-owned brokerage firms. City Press reports chairperson of the Black Brokers' Council Artwell Hlengwa as saying the organisation had identified 69 firms in which it wanted its members to buy BEE stakes. Hlengwa says buying shares in these companies will assist them with the transfer of skills from the white firms to blacks. He says negotiations to fund the deals are under way with blue-chip insurance firms like Old Mutual, Sanlam, Liberty Life and Metropolitan.