Mobil Corp. Confirms Move Out of South Africa

Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. company remaining in South Africa, confirmed today that it is pulling out of that country after 90 years and said it is selling its assets to a South African company.

The giant oil company’s sale to General Mining Union Corp. Ltd. includes a refinery and retail and commercial petroleum-marketing networks. Twelve Mobil-affiliated companies are involved in the sale, doing business in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho.

New York-based Mobil would not disclose terms of the deal but said it “exceeds Mobil’s estimated present value of its future earnings.”

South African media had reported earlier this week that Mobil planned to sell the assets at a fraction of their value.

“This was a difficult decision because we continue to believe that our presence and our actions have contributed greatly to economic and social progress for nonwhites in South Africa,” Mobil Chairman Allen E. Murray said.

Congress in late 1987 passed a bill by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) that eliminated a tax credit for U.S. companies that allowed them to deduct taxes paid to South Africa against taxes owed to the U.S. government.

The Reagan Administration opposed the amendment.