Despite the Ramaphoria effect, GDP figures to be released this week are expected to show that key sectors of the economy hardly expanded in the first quarter of this year. The sudden improvement in political, consumer and business sentiment after Cyril Ramaphosa was elected president of the ANC and of the country has, however, sparked new interest among investors. Kevin Cron, a mergers and acquisition lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright, compared this interest to last year's negative narrative when the many cross-border deals reflected the exit of investors. One example of the climate last year was the announcement by Pioneer Foods that a deal with a multinational group to create Africa's largest consumer goods company had fallen through. It blamed the failed deal on the downgrade of the government's credit rating to junk by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings. Cron said investor interest was "still quite cautious. I think people are waiting to see how the new government settles down. ...
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