One-time construction giant, Group Five, plans to delist from the JSE after 46 years after the company went into business rescue in September last year. The company, established as an amalgamation of five companies in 1974 and listed on the local bourse, has been struggling over the past five years due to SA's weak economy, which hasn’t breached the 2% growth mark since 2013. Big infrastructure projects have dried up over that time as government reined in its spending.
The group's business rescue practitioners "…do not believe that there is any realistic prospect of there being any residual value available for or attributable to the company’s shareholders," it said in a stock exchange statement on Monday.
Group Five added that it no longer complies with some JSE listing requirements, and is also unable to release its annual results. The construction company's shares will be removed from the bourse on June 15. Over the past three months some of the country’s best known firms, including Edcon and Comair, have filed for business rescue on the back of a persistently weak economy, a situation that has been further complicated by the economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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