Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Outgoing Liberty chief executive Roy Andersen on Tuesday said he was taking a year out of executive life and scotched any suggestion that he was resigning from South Africa's most highly rated life assurance company to join ailing Sanlam. Andersen's name was bandied about Sanlam's corridors in the immediate aftermath of Leon Vermaak's sudden resignation from the struggling group in December. Sanlam has given no indication as to its future leadership strategy, leaving financial director Flip Rademeyer in the hotseat until a decision is taken.

Andersen announced his retirement from all positions within Liberty and Standard Bank on Tuesday morning. News of a big development at the group appeared to be the market before the announcement was made, as the share price plunged nearly six percent at the opening, a good 45 minutes before the first official SENS announcement was made.

But technical adviser in the JSE's surveillance department, Peter Redman, told Moneyweb that there was nothing obviously untoward around trade in Liberty before the 10am announcement, despite the big decline in the share price.

"It was normal basket trade, with not that many shares changing hands, the whole market was down at the time, so there's nothing to suggest the information was leaked," he said.

Andersen insisted that there was no parallel between his and Vermaak's resignations from their respective organizations, and said he was retiring soon after his 55th birthday to "smell the roses."

"I started thinking about this on the beach in December, and after nearly 16 years with Ernst and Young, the JSE and now Liberty, working seven days a week, it's time to take a break, and do the things I want to do."

Andersen intends holding onto his shares for the foreseeable future and is not encumbered by any restraints of trade or lock-ins. He and several members of his executive team were locked in around the time of the failed Nedcor bid for Standard Bank.

Currently the highest ranking civilian in the SANDF, with a rank of Brigadier General, Andersen is looking forward to continuing his close association with the country's armed forces, and following up on various other passions including military history, but he has no intention of writing his memoirs.

But he does intend attending the rugby world cup and going on a 4X4 trail of the Skeleton coast.

"I'm giving it a year, and then I'll decide if I want to come back as executive or non-executive, we'll just see how these things pan out."

Andersen declined to comment on his successor, Myles Ruck or to elaborate on the selection process that excluded any of his current management team from the immediate succession race. He also declined to speculate on the motive behind majority shareholder Standard Bank's decision to put its second most senior executive in the top job at the life assurance group.

Liberty founder Donald Gordon took the decision to appoint Andersen from outside the group at a time when the profile of the board was ageing.

Liberty's current board has the opposite problem-while it has a strong executive team, directors, other than Mike Jackson who is closer to retirement age, are younger and less experienced, thus necessitating bringing in new blood.