SAT I B I N S U R A N CE B R OKE R S
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SATIB INSURANCE BROKERS
Booming Tourism Market
Boosts SATIB PRODUCTION: David Napier
SATIB Insurance Brokers is a niche provider of products to suit players in the African travel and tourism sectors. Off the back of strong performance and significant merger activity, SATIB is poised for growth across Africa. New Managing Director, Dewald Cillie tells Enterprise Africa more about his plans for growing the business around the continent. www.enterprise-africa.net / 3
INDUSTRY FOCUS: TRAVEL & TOURISM
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Speaking at Africa’s Travel Indaba in Durban in May, South Africa’s Tourism Minister, Derek Hanekom said this industry is the fastest growing in the world. “Tourism already contributes about 8% to Africa’s Gross Domestic Product and employs 6.5% of the workforce,” he said. “A record 62 million people visited Africa in 2017, representing nothing less than 8% year-on-year growth.” All of this despite the infrastructural challenges that remain on the continent - good news for all involved in the travel and tourism sector. One South African company that thrives on the success of travel,
Dewald Cillie - SATIB MD
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tourism, and related industries is SATIB Insurance Brokers. Based in Johannesburg, the company has almost three decades of success under its belt. Founded by Brian Courtenay as a family-run insurance business specialising in the protection of highvalue wild game around Africa, the company has adapted and evolved to become one of Africa’s leading insurance brokers for corporate and private enterprises requiring specialist risk solutions, focussing specifically on African tourism. But this innovative and important organisation is not looking backwards; it’s sights are firmly set on the future and the major opportunities that exist for exponential, international growth.
ALL OF AFRICA In January, SATIB welcomed its new Managing Director, Dewald Cillie. Although he has been with the company for some 15 years, Cillie is keen to instil a fresh and hungry appetite for growth. And things have started well for him. The company recently announced the opening of a new office in Mauritius as part of a strategy to grow in East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. “Mauritius is open and up and running,” he tells Enterprise Africa. “It has moved faster than we anticipated. Over the past five years, we’ve seen significant growth in African enquiries and to capitalise on this accelerated growth, we thought it was important to create a team purely focussed on Africa and the Indian Ocean islands. This led to the decision that we would head our African division from Mauritius. The business in called African Risk Transfer (ART) and it is led by Gavin Courtenay.” Currently, SATIB has three business units running from Mauritius; the retail broking business, ART, which mirrors SATIB in South Africa, a reinsurance brokerage business, and Tourism Risk Underwriting Mauritius (TRUM) which is an insurance binder holder for the company’s Lloyds of London insurance facilities. With Mauritius up and running without too much of a hitch, SATIB’s eyes are now looking to Mozambique as the next growth frontier. “Wherever possible, we would like to be in every single country in Africa,” says Cillie. “But Africa is a unique business environment and each territory has its own insurance legislation. We take one step at a time and ensure sustainability before we start a new project. “We currently have a number of offices in Africa; six in South Africa, and eight in other African countries. We also have associate offices in Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Kigali. We are really trying to focus on Southern, Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean
SATIB INSURANCE BROKERS
Islands. These are the biggest areas for tourism and hospitality in Africa. Another focus area is Mozambique. We are in talks about certain opportunities in Mozambique and an announcement will probably be made in the next couple of months about our expansion there.” POWERFUL PARTNERSHIPS The SATIB growth story does not stop with its ventures into new geographic markets. The company has recently completed a spate of successful M&A strategies, strengthening its product portfolio and further extending its reach. “We recently merged our operations with the firstEquity Group and now that group has several specialist insurance broking divisions,” explains Cillie.
“This includes a merger with a strategically placed PSG office here in Johannesburg – the Randburg branch. The drive behind this was to get a bigger footprint, and access to household, car and small business risk products that our existing clients might not have. We are also busy setting up a PSG wealth business to take care of our client’s life, health and retirement interests. It’s given us a bigger footprint inside South Africa and allows SATIB’s historic and unique products to be launched to a bigger distribution base.” SATIB has also extended its expertise in the short-term hospitality industry after acquiring a stake in Olive Insurance Brokers. “Their focus is specifically the B&B and small guesthouse industry,” says Cillie. “This is an area SATIB has not really focussed on so this was a fantastic
opportunity to broaden our footprint, and we are extremely excited about this partnership going forward. Olive Insurance Brokers is a fantastic and well-known business within its market. It was a strategic decision to either set up our own, or partner with someone who already has a fantastic reputation in that industry.” This deal forms part of a SATIB initiative which will see it move deeper into rural South Africa, away from the country’s main metros to provide country-wide coverage. “Acquisition is a growth strategy. If you’re in the fortunate position to have these opportunities, it’s an easy growth strategy in certain instances. Acquiring businesses in geographical regions we are not active in, and targeting growth regions, is an obvious strategy for SATIB,” says Cillie.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TRAVEL & TOURISM
TOURISM FOCUS SATIB’s unique trait is its focus on tourism, travel and hospitality. There is no other company which concentrates only on this sector. While some big multinationals may offer competing products as part of a wider suite, none have the industry knowledge and expertise developed at SATIB over the years. “SATIB’S focus is still the entire tourism
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sector,” reminds Cillie. “We work with any inbound tour operator to the larger accommodation providers and anything in-between; our focus is purely tourism and hospitality and providing specialised risk solutions to the industry. “There was an opportunity realised that assets, liabilities and evacuations for certain tourism and accommodation
// WE HAVE A PRODUCT FOR EACH AND EVERY PLAYER IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY // providers in South Africa need insuring. It started with wildlife broking and became Safari and Tourism Insurance Brokers, focussing on tourism and hospitality as a niche. “We still focus on the wildlife industry, it remains an important aspect of our business, but we now incorporate many other sectors from smaller B&Bs to large hotel operators, specialist game lodges to online tour brokers, and destination management companies. We have a product for each and every player in the tourism industry. “It has always been a family business with both of Brian Courtenay’s sons, Gavin and Anthony still involved today, as well as Julian Freimond who is Brian’s brother-inlaw and a collection of other shareholders.”
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TRAVEL & TOURISM
Asked about flagship moments in the company’s history, Cillie points out the launch of the SATIB24 Crisis Call as a key point in history. SATIB24 Crisis Call offers members a direct line to doctors, nurses and security professionals in a crisis. The team provides seamless delivery of emergency medical, security and incident management specialists so the best possible outcome can be achieved in any situation. “It’s hard to pinpoint one moment as our proudest as we’ve achieved a lot of positivity through the years. But when we launched our SATIB24 crisis and emergency assistance programme, that was a flagship event, especially considering the number of incidents we are involved in on a weekly basis and the numerous lives we helped save,” says Cillie. He also lists regaining control of the company’s shares from external holders, the merger with firstEquity Group, and the merger with PSG’s local offices as milestones in the SATIB story. “Across the group we have around
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270 people and with the mergers and the growth vision that we have, it’s an absolute definite for that to grow.” PEOPLE POWER Insurance is a people powered business. The existence of the industry is based on the premise of protecting people, and the delivery of those services is impossible without innovation and dedication of people. At SATIB, employees are nurtured and encouraged to thrive. Cillie himself has been with the company for 15 years, working his way through the ranks. He is keen to ensure a strong flow of talent through the company but admits this can be challenging. “Recruitment is absolutely an issue, even more so for our business considering the niche we serve; it’s a very specialised part of the insurance industry and to find the right skill-set is extremely difficult and costly. “I certainly see that there is an industry bleed of experience and the
gap between the up and coming and the exiting experience is large. All the training facilities are there, but it is a time-consuming process. “We have a successful learnership programme within the business that we continuously run, and many of the learners we put through the programme are now actively employed full-time by the group. We also conduct regular, active inhouse training sessions with staff, from the ground up to senior directors. We sub-contract stalwarts of the industry to give us specific class related training on the needs of our business and that is an ongoing process.” A report from the Insurance Journal, a US-based industry publication, suggests that training is now the most important aspect of an insurance business thanks to the ever-changing nature of the sector. “New skill sets and backgrounds are required, and insurance education is a critical in this changing risk dynamic,” the report states. But investing large sums into training
SATIB INSURANCE BROKERS
Associated Loss Adjusters would like to congratulate Safari & Tourism Insurance Brokers (SATIB) on their success and growth. As one of the top independent loss adjusting firms in South Africa, Associated Loss Adjuster’s reputation has been hard earned and is based on upholding the foundations of professionalism, integrity and technical expertise.
www.alacc.com | alacc@iafrica.com | +27 (0)11 886 1030
employees is something of a Catch-22 for modern insurers as the industry is quickly seeing the rise of automated systems, replacing human capital in various positions. Today, you could call any of the big-name international insurance organisations present around Africa and have your query dealt with without talking to a human being at all. And while Cillie is not convinced that Artificial Intelligence can handle the complex requirements of the customer yet, he admits that movement in that direction is inescapable. “We highlighted this around three years ago, and we realised we need to go down the digital route to ensure our products are out there. It’s where our industry is going, it’s unavoidable. We’re looking at digitising a large portion of our product portfolio so they can be purchased easily online.
“We are underway with it and we have a project team actively looking at rolling out a digital strategy to the larger market.” POSITIVE OUTLOOK Like every other industry, insurance has felt the impact of the ‘Ramaphosa Effect’. Since taking the Presidency, Ramaphosa has managed to instil positivity in the business environment. Following a period of stagnant growth, 2018 started with much enthusiasm and Ramaphosa has been largely credited for the upswing in confidence. “We definitely saw the benefit of change. It’s still early days but obviously our clients’ businesses are driven by an exchange rate. The outlook is positive and the next couple of months will set the tone for what we can expect over the next few years, but right now the feeling is absolutely positive and there is a new energy in
business, and in our clients’ businesses. “Our pulse is our clients and that is where we can actively gauge how the economy is really playing out. The feedback so far has been great, but the stronger the Rand gets, the lower figures we see with international travel. “Overall, things are positive and people are now looking to the future,” says Cillie. And that future involves, more than ever, a focus on growth and first-class client service. “My challenges have been exciting and it’s been a roller coaster ride so far. I am focussing on exponential growth for the business and getting back to personal client service, and that is what I want the business to target at this stage,” Cillie concludes.
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AFRICA
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR AFRICA’S INDUSTRY LEADERS
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June 2018
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