Alexander Forbes has earmarked £110m to invest in UK acquisitions in the next year and is now considering a UK listing.
The South Africa-listed group last year spent £80m on five acquisitions.
Graeme Kerrigan, chief executive, said Alexander Forbes had sufficient capital for its acquisition programme in 2001 but added that it was working with its advisers Deutsche Bank and Lexicon to access further capital for 2002.
Kerrigan said: “We haven't ruled out anything. The easiest solution would be a UK listing and if we can't do that, we will have to find two or three providers of significant capital who can assist us with our acquisition programme.”
But new criteria have made it more difficult for companies to transfer their listing from South Africa to the UK. Alexander Forbes wants the capacity to fund acquisitions after 2002 by issuing equity but doing so on the South African market would mean the company would be subject to exchange controls.
The insurance broker reported operating profits of £46.2m in the year to March, and said about 55% of group revenues came from outside South Africa. It is aiming to push up that proportion to nearer 70%.
