CA Consults with Representatives of Merging Parties

The Competition Authority today (11^th February 2015) met with representatives of merging parties to brief them on the merger notification, merger assessment and merger determination processes as well as to receive feedback from them on their experiences and expectations, with the aim  of improving the merger notification filing process.

Welcoming the participants to the meeting, the Director of Mergers and Monopolies, Ms. Magdeline Gabaraane, indicated that the consultation was very important as it would positively impact on the time taken to assess mergers by the Authority.

She further indicated that following the consultative meeting, it was expected that there would be improved working relations between the Authority and representatives of merging parties, which will in turn improve the merger assessment process to the benefit of both parties.

Briefing the participants, the Manager for Mergers and Monopolies, Mr. Innocent Molalapata, discussed factors which contribute to delay in the merger assessment and determination process. He said these include the submission of unaudited financial statements, failing to provide the required information, giving incorrect or misleading information and failure to provide the most recent version of all documents constituting the merger agreement.

Mr. Molalapata further informed the participants that the Authority may revoke a decision approving the implementation of a merger if it is discovered that the decision was based on materially incorrect or misleading information, or if any condition attached to the approval of the merger that is material to the implementation is not complied with.

For their part, some representatives of the merging parties expressed concern with requests by the Authority for clarification or more information near the expiry of the 30 day merger review window. They said this causes delays at it necessitates extensions, and suggested that requests for information or clarity should be made as soon as documents are filed with the Authority.

Some called for a review of the P10 million threshold for merger notification, indicating that it is too low, as well as for the review of the Competition Act. Participants were informed that the Authority was actively discussing the issue of thresholds looking at what prevails in the market, and that some proposed amendments to the Act had already been tabled and are with the Attorney Generals Chambers.

Ms. Gabarane thanked the participants who included representatives from various law firms for attending the consultative meeting and assured them that their feedback was taken seriously, and that their concerns would be addressed.