The Competition Tribunal today unconditionally approved a merger between Humulani Marketing and construction equipment company High Power Equipment (HPE).
This was despite the Competition Commission having recommended that the tribunal approve the deal subject to conditions aimed at limiting the possibility of collusion in the market.
Humulani was ultimately controlled by Invicta Holdings, a group that did not conduct any business, but held operating divisions including Tiletoria, Bearing Man Group and Capital Equipment Group (CEG).
Of relevance in this merger was CEG, which distributed earthmoving and construction equipment, including articulated dump trucks, crawler dozers, wheel loaders, crawler excavators and mini excavators.
HPE, the target of the transaction, also distributed various product categories of construction equipment and accessories, including dump trucks and wheel loaders under the Astra and Hyundai brands respectively, in Southern Africa.