{"id":821049,"date":"2025-04-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821049"},"modified":"2025-04-16T15:00:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T13:00:23","slug":"the-r5-2-billion-pic-deal-that-quietly-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/821049\/the-r5-2-billion-pic-deal-that-quietly-disappeared\/","title":{"rendered":"The R5.2 billion PIC deal that quietly disappeared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In October 2018, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Pelo Agricultural Ventures announced they bought a majority shareholding in Karan Beef for up to R5.2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelo Agricultural Ventures is a black-owned holding company that operates in the agricultural sector in South Africa and the rest of the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this deal never happened, and the Public Investment Corporation never shed light on what went wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karan Beef, which was founded by Ivor Karan in 1974, operates the largest cattle feedlot and abattoir in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, its feedlot accommodated 150,000 head of cattle, and its Balfour-based abattoir could process 2,000 head of cattle daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Karan Beef accommodates up to 210,000 head of cattle at the Heidelberg Feedlot, Nigel farm, and its numerous holding stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is Karan Beef\u2019s biggest market. It supplies quality beef to most of South Africa\u2019s best-known food retailers, butchers, beef distributors and wholesalers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its beef is also exported internationally to markets including the Middle East, the Far East, the Indian Ocean Islands and the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karan Beef is approved to export to UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, People\u2019s Republic of China and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a global powerhouse in the South African and global meat market, which made it a good investment for the PIC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a historic deal concluded in terms of our clients\u2019 developmental investment mandate, which will support the much-needed transformation in the agricultural sector,\u201d the PIC said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will bring new entrants into the sector at ownership level and will be instrumental in bringing emerging farmers into the value chain of beef production in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The asset manager said it was happy that the Karan family had decided to sell part of this vital asset to South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former PIC CEO Daniel Matjila said the transaction, which ensured Karan Beef\u2019s ownership remains local and in black control, must be celebrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ivor Karan said it was a ground-breaking deal for agriculture in the country, and that it was good news that the company would remain South African.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal disappears<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Tribunal approved the acquisition of Karan Beef by a PIC-controlled firm. However, the deal was never concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no official statement on why the deal failed. However, in 2019, allegations of corruption related to the R5.2 billion deal between the PIC and Karan Beef surfaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the allegations were contained in a report of the Judicial Commission of Enquiry into allegations of impropriety at the Public Investment Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the allegations involved Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who was the ANC’s Treasurer-General at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was alleged that the deal was constructed to inflate the selling price by R1 billion and pay Mashatile the amount. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite numerous invitations for those with information to present it, no one came forward to substantiate the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sello Motau explained that the transaction went through numerous committees and ultimately the Investment Committee, which approved the transaction on certain conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conditions were met. However, since the resignation of the whole PIC Board on 1 February 2019, the transaction has stalled and ultimately failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason the deal did not happen was that the long stop date expired before it could be concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means that Karan Beef remained a family-owned business. Ivor Karan continues to manage the business and is chairperson of the Karan Beef board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His three sons, Matthew, Justin, and Avron, are all involved in the business, and his wife handles building and maintenance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In October 2018, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) announced that it bought Karan Beef for R5.2 billion. However, this deal quietly disappeared without a word from the asset manager.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":821051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5957,22305,13433,22304,22204],"class_list":["post-821049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-daniel-matjila","tag-ivor-karan","tag-karan-beef","tag-pelo-agricultural-ventures","tag-public-investment-corporation-pic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821049"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821207,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821049\/revisions\/821207"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}