MERGER WOES
Cement in SA in need of a happy ending
Shakespearean themes loom large in the potential merger of rival South African cement giants PPC and Afrisam
Shakespearean themes loom large in the potential merger of rival South African cement giants PPC and Afrisam and it appears a foreign investor and transformation may come out as joint winners. Hopefully, though, whatever eventually happens in this significant power play is neither tragedy nor farce. SA needs a cement champion in Africa. It does not need two cement producers whose businesses are crumbling in the face of severe competition and dreary local markets.What any merger might mean for competition authorities is entirely unclear at this juncture. But some light has at last been shed on opaque negotiations that collapsed about two years ago, after beginning in late 2014, only to be revived in February 2017 and then terminated in the latter part of August. The players have now confirmed that Canadian financial services group Fairfax Financial Holdings will inject R4bn into Afrisam — which will settle almost all of the firm’s third-party debt — if PPC accepts a revised merger pr...
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