ROB ROSE: Acsa debacle lays bare truth behind Ramaphosa’s investment spin
After 20 years, investors remain trapped in the airports company. It casts a cloud over rhetoric that the private sector should invest alongside government in Eskom
For anyone thinking of investing in Eskom’s “unbundling”, here’s a cautionary tale of broken promises, deception and government capriciousness. It all begins in 1998, when the government laid out a blueprint to list the Airports Company SA (Acsa) on the JSE within three years, which it started by selling 20% to Italy’s Aeroporti di Roma for R819m and 4.2% to a black empowerment group for R172m.
Mac Maharaj, minister of transport at the time, described it as “the best deal for our country”. Acsa’s prospectus said this was the first step in the government’s “two-stage divestment of its shareholding in Acsa”, with “the second stage [being] to divest its shareholding by means of an initial public offering”...
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