Dangote Cement, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group has withdrawn its interest in acquiring PPC, a South African cement company.

A statement filed by Dangote Cement with the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Friday, and signed by Mahmud Kazaure, the company’s secretary, read in part: “That on the 5th October 2017, the Board of Directors of DCP formally notified the Board of Directors of PPC that it no longer had an interest in acquiring the entire share capital of PPC Limited”

The management of Dangote Cement had earlier communicated its interest to the Board of Directors of PPC with respect to the acquisition of the entire share capital of PPC.

PPC is already the subject of an all-share merger bid by local rival AfriSam that values it at $700 million.

The interest from Dangote Cement, with a market capitalisation of $12 billion, had raised hopes of a bidding war and pushed PPC’s share price above AfriSam’s offer price.

However, after Dangote’s announcement on Friday, the share price of PPC fell 13.64 percent, before recovering some ground to trade 4.34 percent lower at 6.17 rand at 1121 GMT. The price was still above AfriSam’s 5.75 rand offer price.

“The general feeling was that Dangote would provide some sort of stability as well as capital going forward,” Independent Securities trader Ryan Woods was quoted to have said in a report.