Honeywell and Revlon Join Exodus of U.S. Firms From S. Africa
Two American companies, Honeywell Inc. and Revlon, Inc., announced Thursday that they will sell their operations here and join the exodus of American companies from South Africa.
The sales to South African owners follow a pattern set by General Motors Corp., IBM and dozens of other U.S. companies that bowed to divestiture pressure from the anti-apartheid movement and to poor economic conditions.
A major South African industrial group, Murray and Roberts, is to purchase the Honeywell operation for an undisclosed amount, and all 175 employees probably will keep their jobs, said Markos Tambakeras, Honeywell’s local managing director.
At Honeywell’s headquarters in Minneapolis, spokeswoman Susan Eich said: “I think it’s generally acknowledged that the business environment in South Africa is volatile.
“We took into account the total business environment in that country and came to the conclusion it’s in our best interest to sell the affiliate to Murray and Roberts.”
The Honeywell affiliate, which sells and services electronic control systems for buildings and industries, accounts for less than 1% of Honeywell’s revenues, which totaled $6.6 billion last year, Eich said. Such systems manage equipment, monitor industrial and other processes and collect data.
‘Uncertainty’ Cited
Revlon, a beauty products concern based in New York, said it is leaving because of “the uncertainty in the economic and political situation in South Africa created by the government’s lack of progress in dismantling its system of apartheid and its failure to achieve racial equality.”
“Revlon will be terminating its involvement in South Africa through the sale of its subsidiary there” by the end of 1987, the company said.
Revlon operates a manufacturing plant in Johannesburg that employs about 300 people. The company, which posted total revenue of $1.24 billion in the nine months ended Sept. 30, does not break out the results from its South African operations, but the unit’s annual sales are believed to be less than $20 million.
Revlon’s announcement came the same day that Operation PUSH, the civil rights group headed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said it was stepping up its boycott of Revlon cosmetic products because of the company’s South African holdings.
More than 60 American companies have left South Africa since January, 1985, including at least 24 this year.
Britain is by far the largest foreign investor in South Africa, with investments estimated at $8.5 billion. Thus far, speculation that the large Barclays divestiture would trigger a flood of other British withdrawals has not been borne out.
