RMB

In Johannesburg, Rand Consolidated Investments (RCI) was founded by three entrepreneurs. These were Pat Goss, Laurie Dippenaar and GT Ferreira.

In 1977, a group of individuals merged their innovative ideas with traditional values to establish a lending and financing company that would thrive. This foundational move paved the way for future success. Later on, RCI partnered with Rand Merchant Bank, which was owned by Johann Rupert. This collaboration resulted in the creation of RMB.

Making history: RMB's growth and development

In 1998, RMB joined the FirstRand group. Even now, RMB stands out for its unique thinking ability, collaborative work, and entrepreneurial mindset. The brand promise of RMB's founding members, which emphasised both conventional values and creative ideas, remains as robust as ever.

Unlocking discretionary energy and liberating specialist talent

RMB thinks that one of the major characteristics contributing to its competitive differentiation is its capacity to deliver and bring specialised skills to the table. Laurie Dippenaar notes, "Our environment empowers us to deliver exceptional work."

A people-driven organisation

RMB's culture empowers and challenges its diverse talent to make a difference and contribute positively to its clients' social, economic, and financial landscape in its chosen markets. RMB is a people-driven organisation where exceptional thinkers thrive on complexity.

Solutionist thinkers: Going the extra mile

At RMB, employees are solutionist thinkers. These brand custodians come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines and strive to be good corporate citizens.

Expansion across the continent and beyond

RMB considers expanding its footprint across the continent as a crucial growth tactic. It provides CIB services in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Nigeria under the RMB brand

Moreover, RMB has specialised services available in the UK with its London office and in India through its Mumbai office. It has created a broker-dealer enterprise in the US while overseeing FirstRand's representative branch in New York. RMB is also responsible for managing FirstRand's representative offices.

The division of RMB that deals with investment banking provides a different funding strategy called principal investments, which includes a mezzanine finance service.

RMB is only able to consider funding requests from large corporations that exceed R75 million as they are an investment finance service provider. However, with the principal investment solution, RMB can design, consult on, and finance custom mezzanine transactions.

Flexible funding: Partnership approach and patient funding

The principal investments plan allows RMB to invest in various assets, including in real estate, corporate, reusable energy, BEE, mining, infrastructure and telecom sectors, without any restriction based on the asset class.

Funding options for various business needs with RMB's principal investments solution

The principal investments solution is ideal for situations that require funding for liquidity, such as liquidity events, equity bridges with an eye on an initial public offering, monetization of stakes without resorting to auctions, conflicts over rights or major calls, growth projects where debt capacity is already maxed out, BEE, and project finance, which covers both brownfields and greenfields.

Long-term view and facility repayment alignment: Advantages of the principal investments solution

One of the significant benefits of this funding solution is that it provides all-in pricing lower than outright equity. Combined with a long-term view of the business or asset's performance, this feature enables management and shareholders to focus on core business activities. It aligns the facility repayment with corporate action or an exit. Additionally, the principal investments solution allows for seamless integration with senior debt facilities.

Furthermore, the principal investment solution offered by RMB is well-suited for investing in tangible assets, as the bank invests in physical ownership that is typically considered to be cash-generating, long-term, or backed by withdrawal from agreements.

It considers various asset types, including infrastructure, real estate as well as renewable energy, among others, within this category. The principal investments solution is especially useful in BEE activity where businesses require adaptable funding solutions.

Additionally, RMB's principal investment solution provides its services across a part of Saharan Africa, thanks to its wide geographical coverage. The bank's principal investments solution also offers a unique mezzanine finance service that caters to clients requiring patient funding, all-in pricing lower than outright equity, and easy integration with senior debt facilities.