Bobby Godsell, who was among the big names put forward by activist shareholders to serve on a revamped PPC board, has effectively become the fourth nominee from an original list of candidates to withdraw his nomination.
Godsell, a former AngloGold Ashanti CEO, joins Master Builders South Africa executive Itumeleng Dlamini, who withdrew her candidacy earlier this month.
Experienced mining executive Darryll Castle also withdrew his name from the list as he was one of the names on the shortlist of candidates for the position of CEO, chairman Bheki Sibiya said earlier this month.
Naba Consulting MD Nompumelelo Siswana withdrew her name from the list a month ago, before activist shareholders had reached a compromise with the PPC board to call off a special shareholder meeting, where investors would have considered replacing the board, in favour of a watered-down board revamp at PPC’s AGM in January.
Meanwhile, PPC said last week is was considering a merger proposal from smaller rival AfriSam.
Sources close to the matter said AfriSam wanted to sell its business to PPC in exchange for new PPC shares, and envisaged a merged entity with a market value on the JSE of more than R25bn.
Afrisam said the companies needed scale to compete against international conglomerates across Africa, including Nigeria’s Dangote Cement and merging European giants Holcim and Lafarge.
By Nick Hedley
