The announcement follows an increasing demand for Paramount’s world-class range of military and internal security vehicles from discerning defence and police forces across the world.

John Craig, CEO of Paramount Industrial Holdings said: “It has always been Paramount Group’s vision to develop equipment that can be produced in customer countries, while maintaining high value jobs in design, research & development and production in South Africa. In anticipation of significant growth in our order book, we have been investigating the prospects of greatly increasing our production capability in South Africa.”

“To this end, we explored a number of ways of doing so, and are now pleased to announce that we concluded the transaction to secure the manufacturing facilities, certain assets and selected personnel of DCD Protected Mobility, a Division of the DCD Group (Pty) Ltd.”

Executive Chairman of Paramount Group, Ivor Ichikowitz said: “It has always been my personal ambition to make decisions around Paramount Group’s growth which will support the development of the South African aerospace and defence industry at large. At Paramount Group we have always believed that the technologies which we develop, and the products which we manufacture, are competencies that belong to the African continent. We are firmly committed to continuing the development, design, research and manufacturing capability on the African Continent.”

Ichikowitz added: “Once fully operational, this facility will be one of the largest armoured vehicle and land forces manufacturing facilities anywhere in the world, with a capacity to scale production to more than 400 units per annum. This will have a significant impact on the supplier base and for the South African economy at large.”

Ben Jansen, CEO of Paramount Combat Systems said “We have been exploring opportunities to complement the capabilities and resources of our Combat Systems Business Unit which has been experiencing rapid growth due to major contracts signed in recent months.

“The capabilities that existed in DCD Protected Mobility’s manufacturing facilities will be integrated with Paramount Combat Systems, enabling us to bolster the strength and diversity of our production, leading to increased business opportunities, innovation, new product development and R&D.”

Ichikowitz concluded: “Paramount Group constantly strives to attract and develop the best talent and technologies in the industry ensuring that we have the optimum skills and technological base in our organisation to meet the future demands of customers, including the capability to deliver large scale vehicle programmes across the world.”