New ownership promises job security for mine employees

A NEW kid in the mining business that leads a consortium that will take over the ownership of Murray & Roberts (M&R) Holdings’ mining unit has promised to save 70% of the latter’s employees’ jobs while looking forward to creating more opportunities.

- BONGANI HANS [e-mail]

Differential Capital, which was established six years ago, was hoping that under its new management, M&R’s giant mining unit would, in the long term, grow stronger and create new job opportunities.

The Differential Capital transaction will save close to 70% of all jobs.

“These jobs (under M&R’s old ownership) would have been at risk had there been an immediate liquidation of the company,” said Differential’s executive officer, Vincent Anthonyrajh.

Anthonyrajh described Differential, which is headed to South Africa by Roberts Limited, division, OptiPower, into business rescue in 2023 due to liquidity constraints and losses, “particularly from the slowdown of the material diamond mine, which significantly affected cash flow”.

He said OptiPower, which focused on energy infrastructure projects, will cease to trade and Differential will only buy the mining section of the M&R.

However, Anthonyrajh said his company would make “every effort” to preserve jobs.

He said the process of transferring M&R Differential would be completed once M&R completes its business rescue process, which includes disposing of its non-core assets “to repay debt and restore liquidity”.

“The process is expected to take at least six months,” he said.

He said the retrenchment decision will be guided by the legal framework governing business rescue proceedings and the operational needs of the company.

When asked if M&R’s mining operations will change under Differential, he said he expected these businesses to continue delivering on contractual obligations with good prospects.