By: Creamer media

“We expect activity across the board and our pipeline has broadened across sectors,” said Simon Denny, chief executive officer of the South Africa business. “Mining will continue to be a big theme this year and there are growing benefits to scale.”

Platinum prices have more than doubled in the past 12 months, while gold is up about 73%, spurring deals such as the merger of Anglo American and Teck Resources and the spinoff of Valterra Platinum from Anglo. South Africa is a key producer of both metals.

“We are in the late stage of a commodity boom, with gold spiking and platinum prices rebounding strongly — that should also be a needed windfall for the South African government,” Denny said.

South Africa’s economy has failed to grow by more than 1% annually for the past decade as corruption and dilapidated infrastructure deterred investors. Reforms to end crippling power shortages and improve the performance of the freight-rail network — including opening it up to private investors — are contributing to improved sentiment.

The central bank sees the economy expanding 1.4% this year and 1.9% next, a slight improvement from current rates, but well below the global average of 3.3% for 2026 and 3.2% for 2027 forecast in January by the International Monetary Fund.

“It remains fragile, and maybe still not moving at the pace we would want it to, but it is happening,” Denny said of the improvement in growth rates.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has outlined plans to turn South Africa into a vast construction site to modernise infrastructure and raise economic growth to as much as 3.5% by 2030. He estimates the country will need about R1.6-trillion in public-sector infrastructure spending and an additional R3.2-trillion from private investors to meet that target.

“There are trillions that needs to be spent, and the South African government will need to continue to crowd in the private sector on transmission, railway, ports and terminals infrastructure investment,” Denny said. “The more economic activity, the more companies and CEOs will feel confident to invest and do M&A.”

Denny expects the financial services and property sectors to continue to be active, while the areas of mobile, digital infrastructure and industrials could see consolidation.

The country’s consumer sector is facing threats including the impact of online gambling and low-cost competitors such as China’s Shein and PDD Holdings's Temu.

“There could be both offensive and defensive M&A activity in that sector,” Denny said.