South Africa: Private equity company Pembani Group, investor in Afrisam and Shanduka, a South African investment group, have passed regulatory filings to the Mineral Resources Department and the competition authorities to combine their interests. Pembani acquired the interests of Shanduka following the departure of deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who sold his Shanduka stake after rejoining the government in 2014. The deal will also transform Standard Bank's and Ramaphosa's family trust Jadeite's Shanduka stakes into minority ownership in Pembani.
On 1 June 2015 Pembani, which has a US$730m portfolio after the merger, said that the cement industry has a duty to respond to disruptions caused by the entrance of new players, cheap imports and expanded capacity. "Businesses have a duty to respond to changes," said Pembani CEO Kennedy Bungane. He said that the group would pursue opportunities in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.
The first substantial move by Pembani is likely to be in the cement industry. Although only a 30.5% investor in Afrisam, Pembani controls it through an agreement with the PIC, which is a 66% shareholder. The PIC is also PPC's single largest investor with a 12% stake. Pembani chairman Phuthuma Nhleko is also Afrisam's chairman. Afrisam wrote to PPC, South Africa's largest cement maker, in December 2014, offering a combination of the entities. After considering the proposal, but without presenting it to a shareholder vote, the PPC board rejected the overture in March 2015, saying that it did not believe there would be enough synergies to justify a merger.
Bungane said that the cement industry had undergone permanent changes. "The cement industry in South Africa has changed radically and permanently," he said. "I do not rule out a response by the market to these disruptions." Though Bungane would not elaborate on Pembani's plans for Afrisam, he said it was important for businesses to respond to changing conditions.
Pembani also owns 63% of Tanzania's Tanga Cement, which Bungane said would be used to enter the rest of east Africa, where a shortage of cement capacity makes for good profit margins.
