Intermediate Mergers
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Intermediate Mergers
23/AM/May10
| Title | Bedrock and Mondi |
|---|---|
| Case No | 23/AM/May10 |
| Parties | Bedrock Mining Support (Pty) Ltd
and Mondi Ltd |
| Status | Conditions |
| Rating | 1 |
| Date | 21/10/2010 |
| Time | No time available |
| Summary | The Competition Tribunal approved, subject to conditions, the merger between Bedrock Mining Support and Mondi, in terms of which Bedrock acquired three plantations from Mondi Limited, namely the Letaba, Numbi and De Kaap plantations. The merger, an intermediate merger, was originally prohibited by the Commission and had been brought to the Tribunal by the merging parties by way of an appeal process known as a re-consideration. The Tribunal commenced hearing the matter on 19 July 2010. During the course of the hearing the merging parties and the Commission advised the Tribunal that they might be able to settle the matter by having certain behavioural conditions imposed on the merger to meet both the Commission’s and other third party concerns. The third parties that raised concerns to the Commission are Reatile Timrite (Pty) Limited (“Reatile”), a (downstream) competitor of Bedrock in the supply of mining support products, and Tshifhire Timbers (Pty) Limited t/a Shefeera (“Shefeera”), a BEE firm involved in the treatment and supply of poles. A set of conditions was proposed in the course of the hearing on 20 July 2010 and after further suggestions from the Tribunal, terms were proposed which the Tribunal found acceptable. It has approved the merger subject to these conditions. Bedrock is one of two major suppliers of timber and related supports to the mining industry. The purchase of the plantations is intended to secure part of its timber supply. Because one of the plantations, Numbi, presently has a hardwood supply agreement with Bedrock’s major rival Reatile, which would involve the firms engaging in price negotiations at least twice for the duration of the contract, the Commission was concerned that post merger the firms’ price... |
| Keywords | intermediate merger, timber, northern regions, conditional approval |
| Source | Competition Tribunal |
| Reasons and Orders | 23AMMay10 |
| Date Posted | 24/11/2010 3:40pm |
| All Other Case Documents | No documents available |