Photo by: Duane Daws
Merger notifications alerting South African competition authorities to telecommunication giant Telkom’s R2.67-billion bid for information and communications technology service provider Business Connexion (BCX) have been submitted, with notifications to other relevant competition authorities set to occur on Tuesday.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, outlining the amendments to the buy-out agreement, the parties said the implementation agreement was altered to allow the parties to submit the merger notifications to the relevant competition authorities.
Submissions would be made to the requisite competition authorities, excluding South Africa’s Competition Commission, by no later than August 5, while the merger notification to the commission was submitted on August 1.
The deadlines originally scheduled when the deal was announced in May stipulated the submission of a merger notice to the requisite competition authorities by no later than June 20.
However, following the death of the BCX CEO Benjamin Mophatlane, in June, talks were suspended for a month.
The Takeover Regulation Panel granted the parties an extension until July 11 to convene a shareholder meeting seeking approval for the deal, which would now be held on Thursday at BCX’s offices in Midrand.
BCX said key shareholders representing 80% of the ordinary shares have given BCX written support for the transaction.
The amendments did not specify a new date by which the deal needed to be approved.
The initial deadlines indicated that the transaction required approval by the requisite competition authorities and regulators – and any other approvals in line with the terms of the Electronic Communications Act – by December 8.
The parties also amended a provision allowing BCX to make a distribution to shareholders of up to 20c a share prior to the implementation of the deal.