Grand Parade — an empowerment group traditionally closely aligned to Sun International — had been hotly tipped to tilt at debt-laden casino group Peermont Global.

The company said that negotiations with Peermont had been terminated as parties were unable to agree mutually acceptable terms.

As a result, the company withdrew the cautionary it had issued on August 15.

The cautionary had sparked a jump of as much as 10% in the company’s shares as investors bet on a major deal. The company’s share price closed that day at R4.25.

Grand Parade holds a significant minority stake in Sun International’s SunWest‚ the operator of the cash-spinning GrandWest casino in Cape Town.

Peermont is South Africa’s third-largest gaming group behind Tsogo Sun and Sun International‚ and operates seven casinos in South Africa and three in Botswana.

The flagship operation is the Emperors Palace casino in Johannesburg, with the remaining portfolio comprising smaller operations in towns such as Klerksdorp‚ Secunda‚ Bethlehem‚ Mafikeng‚ Thohoyandou and Empangeni.