Standard Bank provides Letsema Holdings with a holistic funding solution

Standard Bank is proud to announce that it has partnered with Letsema Holdings on a holistic funding solution for its growth and acquisitions strategy.

Established in 1996, Letsema is a black-owned and managed family office and diversified long-term investment holding company with a more than 27-year track record of excellence and ethical business practice. The Group was established by Isaac Shongwe and Derek Thomas with the ambition to actively share the burden of growing South Africa through implementing its values-driven investment model to bring about positive societal change through investing in, building and growing sustainable businesses.

Letsema is passionate about adding value to the businesses and people it invests in and aspires to build genuine and complimentary partnerships. Consequently, Letsema has become an integral partner to its investee companies’ and is becoming increasingly involved in operations, as demonstrated by Letsema’s recent acquisition of the Marlyn Group, which has added to Letsema’s growing investment portfolio.

The Marlyn Group is an established chemicals business and a leading supplier of activated carbon, sodium cyanide and caustic soda to the mining industry. The Company has long-standing relationships with leading mining houses in Southern Africa.

The transaction exemplifies the ability of the Standard Bank’s Structured Capital team to provide bespoke and innovatively structured financing solutions to facilitate the realisation of Letsema’s growth ambitions.

The funding solution provided has not only enabled Letsema’s acquisition of the Marlyn Group, which is well positioned for further growth, but has also allowed Standard Bank to forge a new long-term partnership with Letsema.

Statement from Katlego Tlale, Letsema Group Chief Financial Officer on the partnership with Standard Bank: “Letsema’s acquisition of the Marlyn Group marks our initial entry into the resources focused segment of South African industry. With this transaction, we have acquired a leading distributor of speciality mining chemicals, with an extensive client base in the sub-Saharan gold mining industry. This move aligns with our long-term goal of, in addition to our current investments, investing in and building a resources focussed portfolio. We are enthusiastic about the prospects this acquisition presents and are determined to further expand our presence in the industry as we pursue future growth opportunities together with Standard Bank. We certainly felt an important alignment with the Standard Bank team in terms of shared values and long-term thinking and we look forward to unlocking further growth opportunities as partners in the future.”

Standard Bank Group is the largest African bank by assets with a unique footprint across 20 African countries. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, it is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, with share code SBK, and the Namibian Stock Exchange, share code SNB.