JSE-listed electrical cable maker South Ocean Holdings agreed to pay an administrative penalty of R13.3m, the Competition Tribunal said on Wednesday. The fine equates to more than a quarter of South Ocean’s R51.6m market capitalisation. Its share remained untraded at 33c after the announcement. The local manufacturer has been one of the major victim of SA’s unreliable power supply, causing its share to crash from about R2 over the past five years. The tribunal said the fine amounted to a percentage of the 2010 financial year turnover of the group’s subsidiary, South Ocean Electric Wire Company. A Competition Commission investigation found that South Ocean, along with Alvern Cables, Tulisa Cable and Aberdare Cable, had formed a price fixing cartel via the Association of Electric Cable Manufacturers.
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