Mvelaphanda is one of the largest empowerment companies by net asset value, the most useful measure to use. It was started just over six years ago by Tokyo Sexwale and has grown phenomenally - it now has assets in its portfolio worth more than R3bn.
Mvela has hungrily bought stakes in more than 20 SA companies and has pursued its own green-field initiatives, too. Its investments range from Afrox Healthcare to Dorbyl Engineering.
Though the group has joint ventures with De Beers in diamond exploration, for example, it is showing no interest in a proposed De Beers empowerment deal. Instead it has gone into Angola with Trans Hex and into the Democratic Republic of Congo in pursuit of minerals. It is also looking at an oil deal in Somalia.
Sexwale says he wants to create an African natural resources company based in SA; through Mvela Resources he is doing just that.
The group is divided into five areas: Mvela Resources, Mvela Properties, Mvela Energy & Exploration, Mvela Financial Services and Mvela Strategic Investments. Each is worth more than R150m, and Resources and Properties help to push Mvela's value into the billions. It also has, as part of a consortium, taken on 10% of Absa, which will add R3bn in assets to the portfolio .
One of the things that sets Mvelaphanda apart is its funding structures. "We have been at the forefront of empowerment finance," says Mvela CEO Mark Willcox.
A strategy of always aiming to gain access to cash flows has helped Mvela considerably. Most of its early investments are paid off, thanks to a combination of luck and clever financial structuring.
The group is preparing to list its holding company to position itself to take advantage of increasing asset opportunities in empowerment.
"The next five to 10 years will see the significant transfer of equity and management control to black people," says Willcox.
A listing, though, will bring general investors in to the holding company. "You want to ensure that black ownership is preserved. In an ideal world, you don't want that to be diluted. However, you also have to grow," says deputy chairman Mikkie Xayiya.
The empowerment charters that various industries are negotiating means that many white-owned companies will be selling stakes in their companies to black shareholders. Willcox believes that Mvela, with a proven record and growing capital resources, is well positioned to participate. The companies with access to capital will be ideally suited to benefit the most from opportunities.
Sexwale believes that business has reached a critical phase of transformation. "My release, the unbanning of political parties and the negotiations were, by and large, ignored by business. They watched as politicians struck deals and changed the country. They did not understand that it was not just about political structures but the fundamental transformation of the country. It was about the economy, so business should have been involved. They were bearish, not bullish," he told the FM recently.
The group brought another empowerment group, Khumama, into Mvela Resources. According to FM sources, they were trying to consolidate black platinum players as a strategy to take control of Northam Platinum, trying to turn it into a black-owned operating platinum group. Mvela also has a number of partners such as Makana, which it brings into deals. The recent Absa deal also has a significant broad-based empowerment shareholding. Mvela did the deal in partnership with Makana Trust, which includes many former Robben Island inmates as beneficiaries.
Real wealth creation has been achieved. Two years ago Mvela paid a substantial dividend to some of its broad-based shareholders.
The focus of the company this year will be on bringing the underlying assets under tighter operational control. There are plans to take out the minorities in some of the resources assets - either Northam or Trans Hex, or possibly both.
Transformation will also receive attention because of the companies Mvela is invested in. Mvela has been criticised in some quarters for not transforming the companies it has bought into. The appointment of Limpho Hani as transformation director at group level is intended to speed things up.
The divisions with the best growth potential, Mvela Properties and Mvela Energy & Exploration, will come under the spotlight this year.
Mvela Properties is one of the biggest property development groups in SA. The hotels division plans to tag along on African explorations with Mvela Resources and Mvela Energy and is developing hotel properties with Sun International in Angola.
The Absa deal will also need to be bedded down. Mvela will now have three seats on the Absa board and will be keen to drive transformation further at the bank.
The 10% Mvela now holds puts Absa on the brink of reaching the target for direct black shareholding set by the financial services charter. It will be five years before the stake becomes a true asset for Mvela - it now holds voting preference shares and options to buy new shares to give it 10% of real equity in five years.
The group is intent on consolidating its companies and keeping as much of the cash and business as it can within the group. Afrox Health is an example - Mvela wants to give the onsite private medical facilities to Afrox at all the mines in the group.
