DealMakers - Annual 2025 (released February 2026)
Editor's Note
by Marylou Greig
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Overall, a sense of cautious optimism prevailed as South Africans bade farewell to 2025. This is not to suggest the absence of political and economic headwinds – such challenges are, regrettably, familiar territory – but rather that they were broadly viewed as part of the country’s ongoing narrative. What stood out, instead, was an increasing ability to look beyond the noise and recognise that, after years of accumulated risk in the absence of meaningful reform, South Africa has pivoted, with a discernible shift in trajectory.
Marylou Greig
In October 2025, the Financial Action Task Force removed South Africa from the grey list, acknowledging that the integrity and supervision of the country’s financial system once again met global standards. This was subsequently reinforced by an S&P upgrade of South Africa’s sovereign credit rating, the first in nearly two decades. Well-functioning markets translate confidence into funding, lowering the cost of capital and supporting investment, infrastructure development and growth.
From an M&A perspective, markets signalled renewed confidence. The year ended in a flurry of transactions – including several of meaningful scale – marking the return of foreign capital and investor interest. Excluding the Anglo American | Teck Resources merger (c.R925bn) – an outlier that skews total deal value for 2025 – aggregate deal value amounted to R776bn, up from R660bn in 2024. Drilling down further, and excluding failed transactions (10 deals), as well as those announced by foreign-domiciled companies with secondary listings on one of South Africa’s two exchanges (53 deals), the total value of deals announced by South African companies almost doubled to R418bn.
A total of 25 BEE transactions across the listed and unlisted landscape were announced during the year, with an aggregate value of R48bn. The largest of these was Exxaro Resources’ acquisition of a 74% stake in Ntsimbintle Mining, together with a portfolio of additional manganese assets, valued at R11.67bn. This transaction was awarded BEE Deal of the Year by the Independent Panel (pg 70).
South Africa’s capital markets also took centre stage in 2025, recording several landmark transactions. Deal of the Year was awarded to Anglo American’s demerger of Anglo American Platinum, which comprised an unbundling, rebranding to Valterra Platinum, an accelerated placement, and the subsequent listing of Valterra on the LSE. The accelerated bookbuild, which was oversubscribed multiple times, marked the largest such event in South African history.
Another notable transaction was Optasia’s R6,3bn initial public offering, the fourth-largest IPO of the past decade, and the largest fintech IPO in the history of the JSE. Of the five JSE listings in 2025, four – Greencoat Renewables, ASP Isotopes, Optasia and Cell C – represented a combined value of R73bn, spanning the renewables, fintech and telecommunication sectors. These transactions reflect the characteristics of sustainable growth on the African continent. Looking ahead, the proposed secondary listing of Coca-Cola HBC as part of its takeover of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (pg 67) is expected to further bolster the bourse in 2026.
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Nominations received for the 2025 subjective awards exceeded 80 across the five categories, by far the strongest response in the history of these awards. While this reflects a healthy deal environment, it also speaks to the passion and commitment of South Africa’s advisory community. I extend my sincere thanks to the teams who invested considerable time and effort to compile the detailed submissions reviewed by the Independent Panel, who in turn faced the challenging task of finalising the shortlists. My gratitude to James Formby, Nicky Newton-King and Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa knows no bounds.