On 18 July 2012 the Competition Tribunal (Tribunal) issued reasons for the conditional approval of the merger between Tedelex Trading (Proprietary) Limited (Tedelex) and Sammeg Satellite (Proprietary) Limited, Sammeg Cape (Proprietary) Limited and Sammeg KZN (Proprietary) Limited (collectively Sammeg). The conditions are aimed at preventing the retrenchment of employees.
On 2 April 2012 the Tribunal approved the intermediate merger between Tedelex and Sammeg, subject to the revised conditions prescribed by the Competition Commission (Commission).
Tedelex is a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed company Amalgamated Appliance Holdings Limited and is involved in the marketing and supply of household appliances and electrical accessories. Sammeg supplies electrical accessories and television reception equipment.
The Commission found that as all the parties involved supply electrical accessories, there is a horizontal overlap between the parties. The Commission however concluded that the market is broad with various competitors involved.
A public interest concern was raised in the form of possible job losses as a result of the merger. The Commission therefore imposed the condition that no employees of the merging parties should be retrenched for a period of two years; but revised the condition to state that no merger-specific retrenchments should occur.
The Tribunal concluded that the transaction does not raise any further public interest concerns and that the transaction is unlikely to substantially prevent or lessen competition.
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