{"id":839500,"date":"2025-10-09T13:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839500"},"modified":"2025-10-09T13:33:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:33:24","slug":"south-african-construction-giant-in-business-rescue-scores-a-big-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/839500\/south-african-construction-giant-in-business-rescue-scores-a-big-win\/","title":{"rendered":"South African construction giant in business rescue scores a big win"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Competition Commission has approved the proposed transaction for Differential Capital to acquire Murray & Roberts Limited’s (MRL’s) cementation business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This marks significant progress in MRL’s business rescue proceedings and a big step in its rescue plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the transaction, UK Bidco\u2014a special purpose vehicle controlled by Differential Capital\u2014intends to acquire The Cementation Company Africa (TCCA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TCCA is a wholly owned subsidiary of MRL, which entered voluntary business rescue on 22 November 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group entered business rescue due to what it described as a “perfect storm” of setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included significant liquidity constraints, which impacted operations and led to substantial losses due to delays in equipment procurement and project progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final blow came in November 2024 when De Beers resolved to review its operational plans at the Venetia Mine in South Africa, resulting in the \u2018descoping\u2019 of its contract with Murray & Roberts Cementation Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contract represented more than 50% of Murray & Roberts Cementation\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A core part of MRL’s business rescue plan is selling its mining-related subsidiary businesses, including the cementation business, to a group of investors led by Differential Capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquiring group, through Differential Capital, is an asset management company operating in South Africa and managing investments (retirement funds and hedge funds) on behalf of its clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MRL recently secured R80 million in post-commencement finance (PCF) from Differential Capital for the group\u2019s rescue plan, which helped it manage unavoidable retrenchments and honour severance packages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the business rescue is completed, however, the transaction is expected to safeguard approximately 2,800 jobs across these businesses, with a particular emphasis on preserving South African jobs in Cementation Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cementation business provides comprehensive engineering and construction contracting services to the mining sector in South Africa and other African countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s mining contracting services include underground mine development and shaft sinking, trackless mechanised mining, mining services and raise drilling, engineering design, trackless mining machinery rebuild and fabrication workshop services, and underground infrastructure construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Competition Commission, the sale of TCCA to UK Bidco is unlikely to raise any competition or public interest concerns, and it approved the deal without conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding company heading for liquidation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MRL’s business rescue proceedings have had a direct impact on the group’s parent company, Murray & Roberts Holdings, including its likely liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murray & Roberts Holdings is the ultimate holding company, while MRL is a downstream subsidiary, with several intermediate entities in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the holding company notified shareholders in April 2025 that it had become commercially insolvent as a result of the MRL business rescue plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implementation of the plan will result in Murray & Roberts Holdings not having any operating companies and thus no prospect to generate cash through operations, or to recapitalise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last reporting, the liabilities of the company exceeded its assets, resulting in the company being commercially insolvent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, a creditor of the holding company approached the courts for a liquidation order, which was unopposed by the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holding company was then placed into provisional liquidation following an order of the High Court in early September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gauteng High Court ordered the provisional winding up of the company, with an order for final liquidation expected on 17 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liquidation order relates only to Murray & Roberts Holdings Limited, the listed entity, and does not relate to Murray & Roberts Limited (MRL) or its business rescue process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Competition Commission has approved the proposed transaction for Differential Capital to acquire Murray & Roberts Limited’s cementation business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":839503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22258,23567],"class_list":["post-839500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-murray-roberts","tag-murray-roberts-holdings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839500","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=839500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839505,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839500\/revisions\/839505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}