Cancelled Gupta arms deal cost Denel billions in sales
State-owned arms manufacturer Denel is reeling after a bad year in which weapons orders plummeted and half its board jumped ship
State-owned arms manufacturer Denel is reeling after a bad year in which weapons orders plummeted, half its board jumped ship and a disastrous and costly partnership with associates of the Gupta family came to an end. Denel’s bungled partnership with Gupta-linked VR Laser Asia, which was cancelled on Friday, has cost it dearly by delaying its critically needed re-entry into the Asia Pacific market by more than a year. Denel had identified concrete opportunities for selling artillery, armoured vehicles, missiles and drones to India worth R100bn after being blacklisted for a decade following a kickbacks scandal in 2005. But its partnership with the Guptas to drive SA’s re-entry into the lucrative market, through a shelf company in Hong Kong, put paid to these plans after the Treasury withheld approval for the establishment of the partnership, in which Denel would own 51%. VR Laser Asia is wholly owned by close Gupta business associate Salim Essa, but the Gupta leaks have revealed the ...
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