Boardroom Talk: M&R looks to have dodged a bullet in SA business’s graveyard called Australia

Two decades ago, while visiting Australia to assess a possible acquisition (we passed), I was invited by inimitable retailer Sean Summers to join a group of SA investment analysts scouting around the Pick n Pay operations. The group had recently acquired Franklins, an Australian lookalike for PnP, and a business for which Summers had high hopes.

It ended poorly with Pick n Pay eventually calling time on its Australian adventure in 2010, selling Franklins to Metcash – a group created by the SA business of the same name. Metcash is still led by a Saffer, Doug Jones, whose CV includes executive roles at Massmart and SABMiller. It is the leading wholesale distribution and marketing company in Oz – one of the few SA companies to flourish there.

Australia has been a graveyard for many South African businesses. Most notably WBHO which in February put its Aussie subsidiary Probuild into bankruptcy. Things could have turned out differently, but in early 2021 the Australian government blocked WBHO's A$230m sale of Probuild to the China State Construction Engineering Corporation because it regarded Chinese ownership as inappropriate for such a "strategic" asset.

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