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Dec 15, 2005:
FLEDGLING empowerment company Meago, which specialises in property investment management, has secured two large contracts, one of them with Absa Bank.
The company — which was formed six months ago by former Stanlib employees Thabo Ramushu and Jay Padayatchi and former Rand Merchant Bank employee Sharif Hoosen — has in its short existence manage to secure the mandate to manage the Absa Property Equity Fund, a unit trust due to be launched in February next year.
Meago, which has a property solutions arm, has also secured a mandate to advise the City of Jo’burg Property Company (JPC), the property arm of the City of Johannesburg, on its office accommodation.
Ramushu and Padayatchi say their company will be advising JPC on the “optimisation of their office space”.
Both are former portfolio managers for Stanlib’s range of unit trusts.
Ramushu and Padayatchi have also worked as analysts and fund managers at Stanlib.
Hoosen worked in Rand Merchant Bank’s corporate finance division from 2000 until last year.
Meago is black owned and controlled with Ramushu, Padayatchi and Hoosen all on the board as executive directors. The nonexecutive board member is Polo Radebe, acting chief director of empowerment in the trade and industry department.
Padayatchi says the company has a “few big deals in the pipeline” which it cannot announce at the moment. “We are trying to pioneer black-skilled empowerment in the property sector,” says Ramushu.