{"id":875226,"date":"2026-09-14T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=875226"},"modified":"2026-09-14T11:18:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T09:18:35","slug":"end-of-a-46-year-era-for-r22-billion-mining-and-agriculture-giant-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/875226\/end-of-a-46-year-era-for-r22-billion-mining-and-agriculture-giant-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"End of a 46-year era for R22 billion mining and agriculture giant in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Omnia has agreed to a proposed deal for India-based Solar Industries to acquire the company for R21.8 billion, which would also result in its delisting from the JSE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two companies published a joint statement on 14 September, confirming that Solar Industries had expressed a firm intention to acquire the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal is still pending regulatory approval and further deliberations by Omnia shareholders, with conditions set to be met before the longstop date of 31 July 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved, the deal would see Solar Industries buy all of Omnia’s issued ordinary shares for R134.50 per share, a 14.3% premium on the company’s closing share price on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement would also see Omnia delist from the JSE, where it first listed in 1980, and terminate its secondary listing on A2X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Following implementation of the Scheme, the listing of Omnia’s shares on the Main Board of the
securities exchange operated by the JSE and on the A2X Markets will be terminated,” the companies said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement follows Omnia’s cautionary announcement on Friday, 11 September 2026, stating that it was in negotiations to sell the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omnia would not be the first South African acquisition for Solar Industries, which already owns Problast BS \u2013 a mining explosives company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest acquisition will help the company expand its operations across several continents through Omnia’s facilities in Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will expand Solar Industries’ global reach, with the company already operating in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview on Monday, Omnia CEO Seelan Gobalsamy said the acquisition was aimed at growth for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe deal is about growth,\u201d Gobalsamy said. \u201cIt\u2019s about accelerating growth to put balance sheets together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that Solar Industries can give Omnia access to a wide array of technologies, such as drones and autonomous robotics, which will support its involvement in the mining and agricultural sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are accelerating our agri business in Australia to all parts of the world \u2014 that is a biologicals business focused on crop health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see this opportunity to grow that even faster. Solar has a very strong position in India that could help us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solar Industries and Omnia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Solar Industries has a market cap of approximately \u20b92.02 trillion (R343.5 billion) and has seen its value rise by roughly 80% in the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is the largest manufacturer and exporter of industrial explosives in India and has a global presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was founded in 1995 by Indian billionaire Satyanarayan Nuwal, initially as a lone explosives manufacturing site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company’s plans to acquire Omnia drew market attention on Friday, following the release of the cautionary announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omnia shares increased as much as 7.5% on Monday and traded 4.2% higher at 9:20 a.m. in Johannesburg, giving it a market value of R19.8 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is heavily involved in South Africa’s mining and agriculture sectors, through the manufacturing and distribution of explosives and fertilisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is also involved in chemical manufacturing, which represents a smaller portion of its overall operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reported strong results in the last financial year, with revenue increasing by 6% to R24 billion and operating profit rising by 28%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite its historically strong results, the company faces pressure from the ongoing war in the Middle East and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Escalation in the Middle East heightened volatility in energy and broader commodity markets, particularly for nitrogen-based feedstocks, raising costs and reducing delivery reliability,” Omnia said in its 2026 financial results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“These pressures had sustained variability in input costs, complicated supply chain planning and capital allocation for businesses, and underscored the structurally more volatile and fragmented nature of the global economic environment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India-based Solar Industries is offering billions to acquire South African company Omnia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":797287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2099427697835323587","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2205118120308587","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[6283,26512,26513,26511],"class_list":["post-875226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-omnia","tag-satyanarayan-nuwal","tag-seelan-gobalsamy","tag-solar-industries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875226","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875226"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875284,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875226\/revisions\/875284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}