Talking about joint ventures, what’s up with mergers?

As mentioned in one of our previous newsletters, we anticipate a flurry of merger activity in the property sector in South Africa. Our initial assessment was based on the need to have larger property entities to attract significant offshore capital. The property sector is gaining momentum in international standardisation and the latest merger activities are set to conform to the preferred international standard on internal asset management. Asset managers with large corporate accounts need be wary that if they are not prepared for merger or not merger material, they could be looking to a shrinking client base in the not to distant future.