Sanral plans to sue construction firms
SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), the state-owned road agency, plans to file civil damages claims against the country’s biggest construction companies this month for colluding over contracts related to improving highways.
Sanral is suing builders including Murray & Roberts (M&R) and Aveng following an investigation by the Competition Commission two years ago.
The commission fined 15 construction firms a combined R1.46 billion for collusion over contracts including those to build stadiums for the 2010 soccer World Cup and other projects.
Sanral’s claim would include all the companies mentioned by the Competition Tribunal, the agency’s chief executive Nazir Alli said last week.
Alli added that the amount of damages that the agency was seeking to recover had not been determined.
M&R “is aware of the steps Sanral are taking”, Ed Jardim, a spokesman for the company said last week.
“We have on a few separate occasions in 2014 been in contact with Sanral regarding competition matters specifically, and will continue to co-operate.”
Aveng, the country’s largest builder by revenue, “cannot comment on the potential of civil litigation”, the firm said yesterday.
Basil Read “is not aware of Sanral’s decision to file civil damages claims against construction companies”, Andiswa Ndoni, the executive officer for corporate affairs and governance, said.
M&R shares gained 1.9 percent to R13.92 yesterday. Aveng slid 5.55 percent to R6.30. – Bloomberg polymer industry was overturned on appeal on June 17.
“Regrettably, the evidence of the commission again reflected a level of analysis which could not possibly be plausibly advanced by an expert in the field,” Judge Dennis Davis wrote in part of his ruling.
The commission was considering its response to the finding, the commission’s spokesman, Mava Scott, said.
Bonakele said the commission’s focus was shifting from breaking open local cartels legitimised during apartheid, when South Africa’s political isolation left the economy hamstrung by sanctions, to keeping international companies in check.
“You had state-sanctioned cartels, and even after those were supposed to be stopped they continued in one form or another,” Bonakele said.
“We are still uncovering those. Now we are also seeing more and more international cartels active in South Africa,” he said. – Bloomberg