Outcome of Tribunal cases - 18 November 2019
| Type of matter | Parties involved | Commission’s recommendation to the Tribunal | Tribunal Decision |
| Large merger | CFAO Holdings SA (Pty) Ltd And Unitrans Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd | Approve without conditions | Approved without conditions |
| Large merger | Vector Logistics (Pty) Ltd And The Cold Storage Business (CPG Cold Storage) of The Consumer Packaged Goods Division (CPG Division) of Imperial Logistics South Africa Group (Pty) (Imperial Logistics) | Approve without conditions | Approved without conditions |
| Large merger | Momentum Metropolitan Investments (Pty) Ltd And The Short Term Insurance Business of Alexander Forbes Ltd | Approve without conditions | Approved without conditions |
Tribunal approves CFAO Holdings SA And Unitrans Motor Holdings merger
The Tribunal has approved, as recommended by the Competition Commission, the unconditional approval of the merger between CFAO Holdings South Africa (Pty) Ltd (CFAO) and Unitrans Motor Holdings (Pty) Ltd.
CFAO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a company listed on both the Tokyo and Nagoya Stock Exchanges of Japan. CFAO has subsidiaries in South Africa which, among others, provide mobility services including importing and exporting of vehicles; source parts and assemble wheels and tyres for Toyota SA; and supply Toyota SA with inner and outer sheet steel for Hilux and Corolla vehicles.
Unitrans is a company incorporated in SA and is ultimately controlled by the Steinhoff Group. It owns and operates Hertz Car Rental, U-Insure and Unitrans Automotive. Unitrans also owns and operates a multi-franchise automotive dealership network.
In its assessment, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction is unlikely to lead to a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any of the relevant markets. The Commission also concluded that the merger does not raise any public interest concerns and recommended unconditional approval.
Imperial Logistics’ Consumer Packaged Goods Division acquired by Vector Logistics
The Tribunal has unconditionally approved the transaction whereby Vector Logistics (Pty) Ltd (Vector) acquires the Cold Storage Business (CPG Cold Storage) of the Consumer Packaged Goods Division (CPG Division) of Imperial Logistics South Africa Group (Pty) (Imperial Logistics).
Vector is a wholly owned subsidiary of RCL Food Limited (RCL) ultimately controlled by Remgro. In the Consumer Product industry Remgro controls Unilever, RCL Foods, Distell and Siqalo Foods. The acquiring group manufactures a wide range of branded and private label food products which it distributes through its route-to-market supply chain specialists, Vector.
The target business is wholly owned and controlled by Imperial Logistics which is, in turn, controlled by publicly listed company, Imperial Holdings. The Cold Storage Business involves the provision of refrigerated warehouse and transportation of perishable FMCG’s by refrigerated vehicles. The key customers of the target business include manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers of perishable food products.
The merging parties have indicated that implementation of the proposed transaction will not give rise to any adverse public interest effects, including merger specific retrenchments as the target firm’s employees will be transferred to the acquiring firm.
Tribunal approves Momentum Metropolitan Investments’ acquisition of The Short Term Insurance Business of Alexander Forbes
The Tribunal has approved the acquisition of the short term insurance business of Alexander Forbes by Momentum Metropolitan Investments (MMI).
MMS is ultimately controlled by Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited, a public company listed on the Namibia Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange. The MMI Group (MMS and all related firms) is a financial services company that offers long- and short-term insurance, employee benefits, asset management, property management, investments and savings, healthcare administration, health risk management and client engagement solutions.
In this transaction, the primary target firms are Alexander Forbes Insurance Company Limited, Alexander Forbes Administration Services (Pty) Ltd and Alexander Forbes Direct (Pty) Ltd. These firms, ultimately owned by the Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, provide personal and commercial lines of short-term insurance.
The MMI Group confirmed that the transaction will not result in any merger-specific retrenchments. In addition, the merging parties stated that the employment terms and conditions of employees from the target firms will remain the same or substantially the same.
Issued by:
Gillian de Gouveia
Communications Officer
Tel: +27 (0) 12 394 1383
Cell: +27 (0) 82 410 1195
E-Mail: GillianD@comptrib.co.za
Twitter: @comptrib
Back to Press Releases
