Group Five Enters Bankruptcy Protection; Listing Suspended

(Bloomberg) -- Group Five Ltd. entered a South African form of bankruptcy protection known as business rescue and had its stock suspended from trading in Johannesburg as the South African construction company sees a “slim chance” for any value realization for shareholders.

The company appointed David Lake and Peter van den Steen of Metis Corporate Advisory as business rescue practitioners for each of Group Five and G5 Construction, it said in a statement Tuesday.

Key Insights

• The stock was suspended at 89 cents per share.
• G5 Construction is cutting jobs, but there will be a “significant” amount of severance pay due.
• Other South African construction companies to have been forced into business rescue in the past year include Basil Read Holdings Ltd., a unit of Esor Ltd. and the Liviero Group.
• With the South African economy and state spending on infrastructure having slowed, construction firms are battling to fund long-term projects.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ana Monteiro in Johannesburg at amonteiro4@bloomberg.net;Renee Bonorchis in Johannesburg at rbonorchis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rene Vollgraaff at rvollgraaff@bloomberg.net, Renee Bonorchis

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