By: Natasha Archary

Rapulane Mabelane, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Thebe Investment Corporation joins Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz to discuss the alarming news earlier this month, that oil giant Shell could be pulling out of the country.
On 05 May, Shell confirmed plans to exit South Africa following disputes with its local BEE partner, Thebe Investment Corporation.
Shell has been in operation in South Africa for 120-years, but after a results review the decision to pull out of South Africa was made.
Thebe reportedly holds a 28% equity stake in Shell after merging with the oil giant 10-years ago.
Gugulethu Mfuphi shares that the disputes between Shell and Thebe originated in 2022 when Thebe wrote to Shell revealing its desire to include an opt-out clause and cash-out on a reinvestment of funds in the growing company.
This is estimated to be around R3.7 billion.
However, Mabelane says Thebe remains cautiously optimistic that the dispute over the evaluation of it’s stake in Shell Downstream SA (SDSA) will be resolved withing the next 3-months.
“We’ve had a very long, stable and strong relationship with SDSA which started in 2002 when Thebe first acquired a 25% sharehold in what was then called Shell SA Marketing.
This is essentially where South Africans buy fuel for their cars. In 2008, largely as a result of the success of this partnership and relationship, we then also invested as Thebe 25% in what was then, Shell South Africa Refinery.
Both Shell SA Marketing and Shell SA Refinery were kept as separate legal entities, this was later in 2015 merged to become what is now SDSA.
Thebe now owns 28% of SDSA, and which Shell with another stakeholder holds about 72%.”
Mabelane says the investment from Thebe into SDSA was more than just the BEE transaction, because Thebe funded its stake in this investment.
It was when Thebe was approaching 30-years as a business that a decision was made to revisit the 20-year investment that was made with Shell, and exit that partnership.
Thebe’s CIO also clarifies the opt-out clause that was put into effect in 2016 which would enable the investment corporation to exit the agreement.
Listen to the conversation on Kaya Biz:
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