In Focus | Africa
Military equipment market leaders Marck and MagForce under attack from Turkish and Moroccan rivals
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France's MagForce International and Marck groups, which have been the leading suppliers of equipment to West and Central African armies over the last two decades, are marking time as they battle with various forms of legal action. Rivals from emerging countries are taking advantage of their difficulties to establish themselves on this lucrative strategic market, led by Turkey's Barer Holding and Morocco's Casport.
The sleepy Kakuri industrial estate on the southern side of the northern Nigerian metropolis of Kaduna has not seen so much activity for more than a decade. Since November, a huge textile plant has been under construction alongside the ageing 1960s-built warehouses of national military equipment company Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON). The owner of the new plant? Barer Holding of Turkey, itself owned by businessman Oktay Ercan. In October, the group set up a 50/50 joint venture
