The Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) of Murray & Roberts Limited (MRL) have secured an additional R80 million in post-commencement finance (PCF) for the group’s rescue plan.
This additional facility builds on prior PCF support secured since MRL entered voluntary business rescue on 22 November 2024.
The group — which is a separate entity to Murray & Roberts Holdings — is in the process of trying to stabilise business rescue proceedings.
Murray & Roberts Holdings is the ultimate holding company, while MRL is a downstream subsidiary, with several intermediate entities in between.
The MRL BRPs said the funding will give them time to develop, secure adoption of, and advance the implementation of a business rescue plan.
As part of the rescue plan, MRL’s mining-related subsidiary businesses, including the Cementation operations in both Africa and the America, will be sold to a group of investors led by Differential Capital.
Once completed, the transaction is expected to safeguard approximately 2,800 jobs across these businesses, with a particular emphasis on preserving South African jobs in Cementation Africa.
However, as MRL was the main commercial subsidiary of Murray & Roberts Holdings, the plan has left the latter with no revenue-generating unit, and thus commercially insolvent.
As a result, a creditor has applied for Murray & Roberts Holdings to be liquidated, which the group said it would not oppose.
MRL has stressed that these proceedings will have no impact on its business rescue plans.
The additional R80 millio, provided by the Differential consortium, has helped the group managed unavoidable retrenchments within MRL itself and to honour statutory severance obligations to affected employees in full.
The BRPs reiterated their confidence that the adopted business rescue plan represents the most sustainable and viable path forward.