February 13, 2026: South Africa’s Metair Investments has signalled it is ready for a potential legal battle with the European Commission after being fined for breaching EU antitrust rules.
Metair’s Romanian battery business, Rombat, was fined alongside lead battery majors Exide and FET (including its predecessor Elettra) — together with trade association EUROBAT — a total of around €72 million ($85 million) last December.
However, Metair said in an operational update and trading statement issued on February 9 it was “considering all of its legal options” regarding the matter.
The total fine handed down in respect of Rombat was €20.2 million ($24 million), representing €11.5 million jointly and severally with Metair.
Metair said it continues to refute the decision regarding the legal presumption that it exercised decisive influence over Rombat in this matter, although the amount of the fine had been fully provided for.
Metair is expected to publish annual financial results next month. Results will include details of its other lead manufacturing unit, South Africa’s First Battery.
At First Battery, sales declined slightly in fiscal 2025 with around 1.5 million batteries sold, while sales at Rombat increased by 3% over the same period to nearly 3 million, compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, Metair confirmed that it had closed the industrial division of First Battery, where importing and selling inverters and standby battery systems proved uneconomical.
The group’s Dynamics Batteries unit in the UK has also been closed as part of Metair’s strategy to focus on the African market.
Batteries International reported in August 2025 that Metair’s sale in 2024 of its Mutlu Akü Turkish lead acid operation had significantly derisked the balance sheet.
Following that sale, and the acquisition of South African car parts firm AutoZone, Metair restructured its operations into two core units — the OEM direct component manufacturing segment and the aftermarket parts and retail segment, which includes battery manufacturing.
