{"id":7643,"date":"2026-06-16T23:38:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2026-06-16T23:38:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T23:38:44","slug":"mid-corp-the-engine-room-of-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=7643","title":{"rendered":"Mid-corp: The engine room of South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/iframe.iono.fm\/e\/1686001?layout=modern\" width=\"100%\" height=\"170\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>If you want to know what drives the South African economy, it\u2019s mid-corporate businesses \u2013 those that often operate below the radar and perhaps don\u2019t get the love and attention they deserve. This is where employment is created and where the supply chains that grease the real economy operate.<\/p>\n<p>Nedbank has identified the mid-corporate market as a core part of its banking business, and that has given it some unique insights into how it operates and what the challenges facing managers are.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re joined now by Claire van Schalkwijk, head of Mid-corporate Credit Underwriting at Nedbank Business and Commercial Banking. Hello, Claire. Thanks very much for your time. Give us a high-level view of the mid-corporate market. How big is it and why is it important to the South African economy?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK: <\/strong>Hi Ciaran. Thanks so much for having me here today. The mid-corporate market is integral to our broader economy. It makes up about 30-40% of the South African GDP and it has more than 60% of private-sector employment. I like to think of it really as the engine room of South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>If you were driving along the highway and looked across to the different sides, you\u2019d see the big multinationals, you\u2019d see big South African corporates. But scattered around that you\u2019ll see these mid-corporate sized businesses. You might not always know their names. Sometimes you will. But there are many of them \u2013 and that is actually what\u2019s driving our economy.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What strikes me as really important about this is that you see their commitment to South Africa. You see that a lot of the time they build up the communities around them as well, and it\u2019s not just across one sector.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>They are involved across multiple sectors.<\/p>\n<p>Typically these mid-corporate clients have revenue of about R750 million and upwards towards your listed companies. I think what\u2019s key is that a lot of them are family-run and owned, and you\u2019ve seen that sometimes through the generations as well.<\/p>\n<p>Listen\/read:<br \/>Banking for South Africa\u2019s mid-corporate market<br \/>Trust and technology in mid-corporate banking<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>Now, I guess there are different risks associated with this market, with the mid-corporate market. There are different ways that a bank would look at this.<\/p>\n<p>We hear a lot of complaints in the market about how long it takes to get a credit approval, and so on. So how do you look at this market, and how have you tried to smooth out some of those wrinkles?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK:<\/strong> That\u2019s a great question, Ciaran. What I found has differentiated us \u2013 and this is particularly with Nedbank in our mid-corporate team. I love it, because our credit team is very close to business and together we go out as a team to meet with our clients.<\/p>\n<p>With that you get to build up relationships with clients as well. You get to stare at the owners, the shareholders, eye to eye, and really get to understand them \u2013 what\u2019s driving their business, the risks that they face.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You get a good understanding of what their strategy is, what their pain points are. This helps for better decision-making.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And with that, you talk particularly about the turnaround time \u2013 getting a quicker decision. What I find as a credit executive is you can get out there, you meet with your client, you understand them, and you then are able to make a much more informed decision \u2013 a lot quicker as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>It sounds like this is what the market is looking for. It wants a stronger banking relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a lot of businesses suffered during Covid-19, for example, and more recently with what\u2019s happening in the Middle East. Supply chains have been disrupted. So we\u2019ve seen revenue decline in some businesses \u2013 and a lot of companies have also taken on extra debt. Talk about the kind of relationships that mid-corporates are looking for when it comes to banking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK:<\/strong> Ciaran, I believe the clients are looking for a partner, someone who is going to stand with them through the good times and the bad times.<\/p>\n<p>So what we\u2019ve seen over the last couple of years is that there\u2019s a lot of uncertainty in South Africa. Where we are sitting now, we\u2019ve seen a lot of green shoots and a lot of optimism, and a lot of clients actually going out there and starting to say, \u2018We still want to continue with our growth, and with making those big capital investment decisions\u2019. We\u2019re seeing a lot more of that.<\/p>\n<p>Just to give an example, we\u2019ve had a client in our construction and manufacturing sector who was experiencing a difficult time; it was really partnering with them through that.<\/p>\n<p>We did have to get involved in some debt restructures, but really talked them through that. Now they\u2019ve come out of that in a great position and are continuing well on their journey to growth.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN:<\/strong> All right. So debt restructuring \u2013 that\u2019s one of the things that a lot of companies don\u2019t look at. They have a very vanilla view of what debt is. It is an overdraft facility or a revolving credit facility, and you obviously can assist them in structuring something which is going to be cost-effective and is going to meet whatever it is that they\u2019re investing in.<\/p>\n<p>But take us through some of the challenges that businesses are facing right now from an operational standpoint \u2013 from your experience in the market.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK:<\/strong> Right now I would say there are a number of challenges that the companies in this mid-corporate space have been finding. You\u2019ve got import pressure; there are a lot of cheaper imports coming through, particularly impacting on our manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve had a lot of our clients then having to re-price. We have seen some margin squeeze on a couple of our clients.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>But what really stands out for me is that among this mid-corporate market, you\u2019ve a lot of entrepreneurs, and these mid-corporates are more agile.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>They can make decisions faster. So with that, you\u2019ve also seen some consolidation in various sectors.<\/p>\n<p>For example, we have a steel client; the steel sector has been under some pressure and we\u2019ve a steel client who was able to make an acquisition, a bolt-on acquisition that effectively helped another business to be consolidated into the broader group and able to be part of a bigger group and be successful.<\/p>\n<p>So I think that\u2019s key. It\u2019s really the mindset of our mid-corporate businesses where they\u2019re entrepreneurial and they have that agility to move quickly to keep their business growing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>And would you assist in something like that where a company is looking at an acquisition, because you\u2019ve got corporate finance teams, you\u2019ve got experts in business valuation inside the bank? Would you be able to go in there and assist them on how to actually structure this to get the maximum benefit?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK:<\/strong> Yes, Ciaran, that\u2019s the benefit of our Nedbank mid-corporate team. We have access to our corporate finance team, and we have a leverage finance team. And together with the bank and our credit team, we\u2019re very involved with our clients and a lot of it is actually pre-empting as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We are continually out there visiting our clients, taking corporate finance and our leverage finance teams and having the right discussions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We are also able to provide solutions across not just debt, but also equity and hybrid \u2013 which is looking into your mezzanine debt space as well.<\/p>\n<p>But I think the key message I want to give here, Ciaran, is that it\u2019s about being close to your clients and understanding them and helping them to almost pre-empt these decisions \u2013 and then partner with them through that journey.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>Okay, Claire. Finally, let\u2019s just wrap this up here. I get the sense that what these mid-corporate businesses want is \u2013 they want a relationship. They want something long term. They are looking for a partner, an advisor, a wingman or wing woman \u2013 if I can put it that way.<\/p>\n<p>They want somebody who really does understand the business and the sector in which they operate. So you have to have some sector expertise, and you\u2019ve got to have the financial expertise. You\u2019ve got to have the banking expertise. Is this pretty much the situation?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK:<\/strong> Yes, Ciaran, I believe it is. The clients are looking for a partner. It\u2019s not just to get that sector expertise \u2013 because actually when you go to the clients what struck me is something really key.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take the example of US tariffs. We went to a couple of our manufacturing clients, and they\u2019re very close to the ground. They know what\u2019s happening. They\u2019re very well connected in the industries in which they\u2019re involved.<\/p>\n<p>They often know what is happening in the market ahead of what shows in the economic data that comes through.<\/p>\n<p>But what they\u2019re looking for in a partnership \u2013 to go back to your initial question \u2013 [we have]. We do have a full range of skills across our credit team. We\u2019ve brought people into mid-corporate who have multiple-product knowledge across various different lending structures, different types of trade products.<\/p>\n<p>And in our credit team, as well, we\u2019ve people who have come through from a corporate investment banking angle, and also those that have been in the commercial banking space.<\/p>\n<p>So [we can] give very holistic solutions to our clients \u2013 no matter at what stage they are \u2013 because across our mid-corporates you have those that are just hitting into the mid-corporate space. And then you\u2019ve got the ones that are bumping on the ceiling of going into the more corporate space.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>So we\u2019ve a broad range of skills where we can partner and advise our clients on many different areas. With that comes a wealth of experience across our team.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And yes, we do have specific sector expertise. So we have an agri team that will come in and help advise on agricultural clients. We also have an expert in sustainability finance.<\/p>\n<p>We have been doing a lot more on that side of funding for sustainability options. So definitely we can tap into the various experts within our bank. But what is important is we, our corporate team, have a wealth of experience within ourselves as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CIARAN RYAN: <\/strong>Okay. We\u2019re going to leave it there. If you\u2019re in the mid-corporate market, you would definitely want to be paying attention to what\u2019s going on in the banking market.<\/p>\n<p>That was Claire van Schalkwijk, head of Mid-corporate Credit Underwriting at Nedbank Business and Commercial Banking. Thanks very much, Claire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CLAIRE VAN SCHALKWIJK<\/strong>: Thank you, Ciaran.<\/p>\n<p><em>Brought to you by Nedbank Mid-corporate.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Moneyweb does not endorse any product or service being advertised in sponsored articles on our platform.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#Midcorp #engine #room #South #Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here. CIARAN RYAN: If you want to know what drives the South African economy, it\u2019s mid-corporate businesses \u2013 those that often&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1453,4171,9915,3546,409],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing","tag-africa","tag-engine","tag-midcorp","tag-room","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}