South Africa: PPC and AfriSam have called off a merger of two of South Africa's largest cement producers after failing to agree on the price.
The possibility that regulators may have blocked the proposed deal due to competition concerns was also discussed during the three months of talks, as the two companies would have controlled about 60% of the South African market. PPC spokeswoman Azola Lowan declined to comment on the reasons for the deal collapse.
PPC received an offer in December 2014 to combine with AfriSam and jointly expand into new African markets. "Over the last few months, we applied our minds extensively to the proposed merger with AfriSam," said PPC CEO Darryll Castle, who was appointed in December 2014. "Ultimately we decided not to proceed with the proposed deal."