Report Says Mobil Leaving S. Africa : Largest Remaining U.S. Firm Believed to Be Selling Assets

Mobil Oil Co., the largest U.S. company remaining in South Africa, is selling its operations at bargain prices to the oil subsidiary of a South African mining conglomerate, newspapers reported today.

Mobil representatives in South Africa and the United States declined to comment on the reports.

Business Day of Johannesburg quoted “banking and other sources” as confirming the sale of about $400 million in assets for $150 million and said the Mobil properties would be sold in separate deals over a period of time.

Mobil has been in South Africa for 90 years, and its four subsidiaries employ almost 2,800 people. The oil company has been a symbol of foreign business reluctance to leave the country, despite widespread condemnation of the white-minority government’s suppression of the black majority in the system known as apartheid.

Partly because of South Africa’s race policies, more than 170 American companies have withdrawn over the last four years. Most have sold their operations at low prices to South African-controlled businesses.

Since Exxon Corp., the largest U.S. oil concern, pulled out of South Africa in 1986, Mobil had insisted it would not bow to pressure to disinvest, despite pressure on the company by anti-apartheid groups in the United States.

The South African Broadcasting Corp. reported Wednesday that Mobil may have changed its stance on disinvestment because of a bill passed by the U.S. Congress in its rush to adjourn before Christmas in 1987. The bill by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) removed the right of U.S. taxpayers to credit taxes paid to South Africa against taxes owed to the U.S. government.

At least two shareholder resolutions exhorting Mobil to vacate South Africa are on the agenda at the company’s annual meeting, scheduled for May 11.

The Star of Johannesburg, the nation’s largest daily, reported that “industry sources confirmed” Mobil was selling its South African assets for an estimated 500 million rand, roughly $125 million.

The Citizen, another Johannesburg daily, quoted “local and overseas” sources as saying Mobil was considering disinvesting. The paper said Mobil is the largest non-South African controlled employer in the country with 1,000 gasoline stations, a $225-million investment in an oil refinery and a distribution network.