Nemascore, a newly-formed black economic empowerment (BEE) company, is set to buy 85 percent of Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium for $32o million.

This emerged at the weekend with Evraz Highveld calling the transaction the biggest BEE deal of its kind in the South African steel industry to date.

Linda Makatini, a director at Nemascore, said acquisition talks were still on-going, admitting her firm had made an offer and a due diligence audit was underway.

However, Makatini preferred to keep the source of the funding under wraps, only saying she launched her firm in February this year to cater for the Evraz Highveld interest.

“I would rather not comment on the funding side,” she told the Johannesburg-based daily newspaper, Business Report.

Business Report reported that very little is known about the other Nemascore directors, Patrick Bruce Manuel and Pathmananthan Alwar.

But Makatini confirmed that these other directors are also business people in their “own right.”

According to Makatini, Nemascore is part of a group of companies that have been involved in buying this stake in Evraz Highveld. She declined to reveal the names of other members of the grouping.

Analysts told Ventures Africa that secrecy around the names of other directors was not good at all.

“Remember Makatini has got strong links with the government. Could it be the government is behind this acquisition? The state has always said it wants to launch its own steel firm,’ one analyst asked.

According to Business Report, Makatini is an advocate who studied in the United Kingdom (UK).

Makatini was adviser to Penuell Maduna, the former minister of mineral resources. She has also been an adviser to President Jacob Zuma.

She has chaired PetroSA and the State Diamond Trader, both state-owned entities. Last month, the minister of mineral resources, Susan Shabangu, appointed Makatini to head the board of directors of Mintek, another JSE-listed company.