Old Mutual to decide on next course of action after court orders reinstatement of CEO Peter Moyo

After losing a court battle on the axing of its chief executive Peter Moyo, Old Mutual is heading back to the drawing board to chart the way forward.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed financial services group on Tuesday left the South Gauteng High Court with a bloodied nose after the judge ruled that its chief executive should be reinstated with immediate effect.

Moyo had been fired last month after relations between him and Old Mutual soured when he was placed on suspension in May following accusations of conflict of interest as he is a founder of investment firm, NMT Capital, in which Old Mutual is an investor.

The board in a Stock Exchange News Service statement had said the decision to fire Moyo was not related to performance of financial misconduct but "purely related to the conflict of interest issue".

Old Mutual board chairman Trevor Manuel said at the time: "We must be careful never to create a straw story that he did something wrong. We never said he did something wrong. Doing something wrong and a breakdown in trust are not the same thing,” said Manuel.

Moyo also successfully interdicted Old Mutual from hiring his successor while the company was ordered to foot his legal bill.

Old Mutual's spokesperson Tabby Tsingiwe on Tuesday told SowetanLIVE that the company would decide on the next course of action after perusing the court judgment.

Moyo joined the company in June 2017 as chief executive of Old Mutual Emerging Markets and was later appointed company's group CEO.