Who Was Eric Samson? The Macsteel Founder Who Built South Africa's Largest Private Company

The Builders  |  Olam.business

Eric Samson (1937–2021) built Macsteel from his father's small Cape Town fencing-and-wire business into the largest privately owned company in South Africa, with annual turnover of roughly $9 billion at peak. Bloomberg valued his fortune at $1.1 billion in 2015. He was a personal friend of Nelson Mandela, an Honorary Life World Campaign Chairman of Keren Hayesod, and one of the most consequential South African Jewish philanthropic operators of his generation.

Samson gave only two interviews in his entire commercial career. He died on January 19, 2021, in Newport, California, aged 83. His foundation, the Eric and Sheila Samson Foundation, anchored hospitals and prizes across South Africa, Israel, and the United States — much of the giving anonymous.

Snapshot

The Business Story

Eric Samson joined his father's business, Pan Africa Staalhandel — a fencing and wiring agent — straight out of high school. The company represented Cape Town wire producer S Machanick across South Africa's other three provinces. In 1965, when the Machanick family ran into steel-allocation problems, they offered Samson a joint venture. He accepted. By 1969 the partnership had expanded from fencing into steel. In 1974, Samson bought out the Machanick family entirely and renamed the company Macsteel — by his own account, on the logic that he couldn't go wrong with "a Scottish name and a Jewish owner."

He bought industrial land in Wadeville, Johannesburg — Macsteel's headquarters ever since — and pioneered the steel-service-centre model: customers could order any amount of any steel product, cut to any size. The centres scaled across South Africa.

After the 1976 Soweto riots, Samson expanded internationally. Macsteel opened trading offices in Houston and London by the late 1970s, and by 1980 was exporting to the Far East and South America. In 1982 he acquired Leo Raphaeli & Sons — at the time South Africa's largest commodity-exporting business — adding to Macsteel's steel-trading capability. In 1996, he formed Macsteel International in Amsterdam through a joint venture with Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal SA, with Macsteel retaining controlling interest. The Amsterdam entity added large-scale shipping to the empire.

In 1998, Samson acquired 49% of Iskoor — then a joint venture between Iscor (the South African state-owned steel producer) and Israel-based Koor Industries — and within a short period gained full control of the combined Israeli operation. Iskoor processes 300,000 tons of steel annually and is the cornerstone of Macsteel's Israeli industrial footprint. Samson told the South African Jewish Report he would never sell Iskoor.

In 2006, in line with South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment principles, Samson sold approximately a quarter of Macsteel Service Centres SA to a consortium of black shareholders — including a company controlled by Cyril Ramaphosa (now South Africa's president). In 2013, he sold Macsteel Service Centers USA to the Duisburg, Germany-based Klöckner & Co for $660 million. In 2014, he sold 28 South African commercial properties owned by Macsteel Coreprop, Macsteel Genprop, and Macsteel Service Centres SA to Johannesburg-based developer Redefine Properties for $272 million.

By 2015, Samson was unwinding the empire. Southern Palace Group emerged as the preferred bidder for Macsteel Service Centres SA. Samson kept Macsteel International (the Amsterdam shipping-and-trading business) and Iskoor. Macsteel Group as a whole had an estimated $9 billion turnover in 2011 — larger than De Beers. The company never listed. "We've ploughed back our profits and funded our own expansion," Samson told the Financial Mail in 2006. "We've never needed the glorification. We have simply got on with our business."

Why Samson Matters in Israel

Samson's Israeli industrial footprint runs through Iskoor — the steel-processing operation now fully under Macsteel control. The Israeli philanthropic footprint is larger still. The Eric and Sheila Samson New Emergency Surgical Hospital at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. The Samson Assuta Ashdod Hospital. The Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister's Prize — a $1 million annual award granted by the Office of the Prime Minister for groundbreaking innovation in smart mobility and alternative fuels for transportation. Major sustained giving to Keren Hayesod, where Samson was Honorary Life World Campaign Chairman.

He divided his later years between Cape Town, Jerusalem, and Los Angeles. He was a regular presence at Israeli philanthropic gatherings, almost never as a speaker. Both Cyril Ramaphosa and Benjamin Netanyahu delivered eulogies at his shloshim tribute. The Israeli capital base he built through Iskoor and the Israeli institutional capacity he funded through the Foundation make him one of the most consequential South African Jewish builders ever to operate at scale in Israel.

Samson's Key Holdings (at peak)

• Macsteel Group — founder; 51% retained even after 2006 BEE transaction; largest privately owned company in South Africa
• Macsteel International (Amsterdam) — joint venture with ArcelorMittal; controlling interest; global steel trading and shipping
• Iskoor (Israel) — full control; 300,000 tons annual processing; cornerstone Israeli operation
• Eric and Sheila Samson Foundation — international philanthropic platform across South Africa, Israel, and the United States
• South African and US commercial real estate — substantial property portfolio sold off in stages from 2013 forward

Samson's Legacy and Influence

Three legacies, distinct.

The first is Macsteel itself — the largest privately owned company in South Africa, built entirely without public listing, from a fencing-and-wire business inherited from his father. The structural choice never to list set the operating discipline. Samson reinvested earnings, kept the equity inside the family, and built the trading-and-shipping wing through Macsteel International until the group was bigger than De Beers by turnover.

The second is the South African philanthropic footprint. The R100 million donation to the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital. The R1 million annual gift to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund on Madiba's birthday. Sustained funding of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the Chevra Kadisha, the Rambam Trust, and the broader South African Jewish institutional layer.

The third is the Israeli institutional footprint. Two hospitals carrying the Samson name. A $1 million-annual Prime Minister's Prize. Decades of Keren Hayesod leadership. Iskoor as a long-hold Israeli industrial asset. The combined institutional capacity Samson built or funded in Israel is among the most consequential by any South African Jewish philanthropist.

Why Samson Matters Now

Samson's children — Jeffrey, Dorothy, and Franki — continue the Foundation. The Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation in Smart Mobility and Alternative Fuels for Transportation has emerged in 2025–2026 as one of the more consequential government-affiliated innovation prizes globally, awarded annually at the Israel Smart Mobility Summit. The prize structure has positioned Israel's smart-mobility ecosystem inside one of the most visible philanthropic platforms in the category.

For the next generation of South African Jewish business families facing the same questions Samson faced — what to keep, what to sell, what institutional architecture to fund across multiple geographies — the Samson playbook is the reference case. Build privately. Sell quietly. Give without spotlight. Concentrate institutional commitments in places where the giving compounds across decades.

FAQ

Who was Eric Samson?
Eric Samson (1937–2021) was a South African industrialist and philanthropist who built Macsteel into the largest privately owned company in South Africa. His fortune was valued at $1.1 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in 2015. He was a close friend of Nelson Mandela and one of the most consequential South African Jewish philanthropists of his generation.

What is Macsteel?
Macsteel Group is South Africa's largest privately owned company by some measures, with an estimated $9 billion in annual turnover in 2011. Founded by Eric Samson in 1974 (after he bought out the Machanick family from their 1965 joint venture), Macsteel built an integrated steel-trading, steel-service-centre, and shipping business operating across more than 35 countries on three continents.

How did Eric Samson make his fortune?
Samson joined his father's fencing-and-wire agency Pan Africa Staalhandel after high school. In 1965 he entered a joint venture with the Cape Town Machanick family, expanded into steel in 1969, and bought out the Machanicks in 1974 to take full ownership of what became Macsteel. He pioneered the steel-service-centre model in South Africa, then expanded internationally from the late 1970s, eventually building the Amsterdam-based Macsteel International with ArcelorMittal.

What is Iskoor?
Iskoor is the Israeli steel-processing operation Eric Samson acquired between 1998 and the early 2000s. Originally a joint venture between South Africa's state-owned Iscor and Israeli conglomerate Koor Industries, Samson took 49% in 1998 and then full control. Iskoor processes approximately 300,000 tons of steel annually and remains the cornerstone of Macsteel's Israeli industrial footprint.

What is the Eric and Sheila Samson Foundation?
The foundation, established by Eric Samson and his wife Sheila, is the family's philanthropic platform across South Africa, Israel, and the United States. Its institutional commitments include hospitals at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon and at Assuta Ashdod, the Eric and Sheila Samson Prime Minister's Prize (a $1 million annual innovation prize in smart mobility and alternative fuels), and sustained funding of Keren Hayesod, the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital, and the South African Jewish institutional layer.

Who runs Macsteel today?
Mick Davis is chairperson of Macsteel Global. The Samson family retained a majority interest through the major divestitures of 2013–2015. Macsteel International and Iskoor remained inside the family holding at the time of Eric Samson's death in 2021.

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The Olam Editorial Team | The Builders / הבונים