Group Five to sell steel pipe business for R80m

South African construction firm Group Five said on Wednesday it will sell a 50% stake in its steel pipe business for R80 million ($5.76 million) to LB Pipes Proprietary, as part of plans to exit non-core assets.

Group Five announced on November 7 that it will sell its manufacturing arm and exit some construction businesses as part of a further restructuring to address a slump in its home market.

South Africa’s construction industry has slowed sharply since the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with few major infrastructure projects awarded and those that have been approved risk being curtailed by fiscal strains.

However, a deal to sell Group Five’s Investments and Concessions business to Greenbay Properties, for R1.6 billion ($112 million) collapsed in October.

Group Five said then that the business would be restructured into separate stand-alone clusters and that the board continued to assess various expressions of interest received for it. Source: Money Web