Macquarie Group has announced that its South African cash equities business has entered into a sale of shares agreement to become a majority black-owned enterprise.

Together with a group of local partners, the new enterprise will be uniquely positioned to provide South African institutional investors with access to a leading black-owned equities brokerage business with strong execution capabilities and highly rated research.

As part of the agreement, Macquarie will retain a 49% ownership, with the remaining 51% to be owned by a local South African consortium comprising Mazi Capital, AWCA Investment Holdings, AMB Holdings, as well as some senior management and a BEE senior staff trust.

Malungelo Zilimbola, Mazi Founder and CIO, commented on behalf of the consortium: “We are passionate about showcasing black talent, training young professionals and achieving gender balance in the financial services industry. We are excited to be partnering with such a strong international equities research and brokerage platform as this will go a long way in providing scale in our training and skills development endeavours”.

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and following a transition period, the new enterprise is expected to commence operations in the second quarter of 2018.

Paul Plewman, Head of Macquarie’s Commodities and Global Markets group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: “Our new partnership is an important development in our strategy of becoming the market-leading black-owned equities brokerage business in South Africa. We are delighted to partner with consortium members who share our vision and are highly regarded for their strong Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) credentials.”