Shares in South Africa’s largest dairy firm plunged by nearly 10 percent on Thursday, as anti-Israel activists attempted to wreck a $354 million buyout deal with an Israeli-led consortium.
Composed of local, black-owned investment companies and the majority stakeholder, the Tel Aviv-based Central Bottling Co. (CBC), the consortium announced the buyout of South African dairy company Clover on Monday, sending the company’s stock soaring by 21 percent.
But after protests from the influential political lobby in South Africa that advocates for an economic and cultural boycott of Israel, Brimstone Investments, one of the four South African partners in the consortium, said on Thursday that it would “reconsider” its participation in the deal, sending Clover’s share price tumbling.
News of the Israeli-led buyout earlier in the week had been warmly welcomed by South African financial analysts, who are concerned by the sharp decline in foreign direct investment in the country in recent years.