ALAN PEAT THE FRENCH quality-assessment company, Bureau Veritas (BV), has signed a black economic empowerment (BEE) memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SA-based World Class Investment headed by Cecil Gigaba. The MoU ensures that BV owns 75% and World Class Investment 25% of the company holdings. “We are ripe to take this association further,” said BV’s CEO, Vincent d’Arifat. “We recognise that our growth in Africa can only come from an increase in the local business,” he said. Gigaba, chairman of World Class Investment Holdings, told FTW that the company had refused a number of BEE deals before this one. “But we are positive that this partnership with Bureau Veritas will see the expertise of each company adding value to the other,” he said.
