Though mergers & acquisitions (M&A) in Africa continued to decline in 2024 — a year dominated by political uncertainty due to the unprecedented number of elections across the continent and the world — SA still accounted for more than half of the value of transactions.
Data from global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) shows that while M&A deal volume in Africa decreased by nearly 10% last year, deal values surged by 85% due to large transactions in gold — the price of the metal rallied to record levels — and critical minerals.
“SA targets accounted for over 60% of deals by value and over 30% of deals by volume in Africa during 2024. Nigeria was the second-most active by value, with about 15%, and 8% of deals by volume. Egypt was third by deal value, accounting for about 8%, and 25% of deals by volume,” HSF said.
“From a foreign capital investment perspective, France was the largest inbound acquirer by value in 2024, with $2.8bn invested across over 20 deals, followed by the US, which invested $2.4bn across more than 50 deals, and China, which invested over $2bn in over 10 deals,” the law firm said.
“From a sector perspective, consumer and financial services continue to take the top two places as the most active sectors by deal volume in Africa.”
AngloGold, Gold Fields
Some of the biggest gold deals that took place last year include AngloGold Ashanti’s acquisition of Centamin in a $2.5bn stock and cash deal, and Gold Fields’ purchase of Osisko Mining for $1.39bn.
JSE-listed AngloGold in September made a bid for Centamin, owner of Egypt’s largest gold mine. Centamin shareholders will receive 0.06983 AngloGold shares and $0.125 cash for each Centamin share they hold.
After the acquisition AngloGold shareholders will own about 83.6% of the group’s enlarged issued share capital, while Centamin will own 16.4%.
In line with AngloGold’s ambition to close the valuation gap with Newmont and Barrick Gold, it has taken considerable action to improve the quality of its portfolio in recent years.
In 2020, the group sold its remaining SA mining assets to Harmony Gold for about R4.4bn. In 2022, it acquired US-based Corvus Gold for $365m.
Canal+, Multichoice
French media giant Canal+ also made a multibillion-rand bid for MultiChoice. To get the deal over past regulators, the companies have proposed a structure that will establish a separate entity housing MultiChoice’s broadcast licence in SA.
Two weeks ago the broadcasters said they had agreed on the structure of the group after a transaction whereby the French media group will acquire its SA-based counterpart.
The transaction faces regulatory hurdles and resistance from internal stakeholders because SA’s regulations — under Icasa and MultiChoice’s own memorandum of understanding — limit foreign voting rights to 20%. In addition, it is unclear how the French group will tackle the issue of black ownership.
The two companies appear to have found a structure that, at least for now, appears to address both concerns.
“Ongoing worldwide geopolitical uncertainty and its economic effects will continue to have an impact on M&A transactions in Africa. The increased ticket sizes and improvement in deal value in 2024 was promising and we expect an upward trend ... in 2025, but the impact of global uncertainty remains to be seen,” HSF said.
SA also reported activity in the venture capital space, with a notable deal being a $250m capital raising that led to Brazilian fintech Nubank buying into TymeBank.
Nubank invested $150m, M&G’s Catalyst subscribed for $50m, and existing shareholders put in a further $50m.
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