The Competition Tribunal of South Africa on October 22 said it has unconditionally approved transport logistics company Super Group's acquisition of wholesale courier services company Regional Wholesale Service (RWS).
"The tribunal has concluded that the merger is unlikely to lead to a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant market in South Africa. This is because the merger parties’ combined market shares in the affected markets will be relatively low and other players would constrain the merger parties in the affected markets after the proposed transaction."
Additionally, the merger parties’ business models differ significantly and, as such, they cannot be deemed to be direct competitors, the tribunal says.
The tribunal found that the proposed transaction does not raise any public interest concerns. The merger parties submitted that there would be no retrenchments as a result of the merger.
The merger parties further submitted that RWS currently uses independently owned companies as part of its courier network to carry out the delivery of parcels, the majority of which are owned by historically disadvantaged persons.
The parties' commitment further provides funding to these independently owned companies through broad-based black economic empowerment spending under enterprise development.
The merger parties also submitted that the proposed merger would allow RWS to grow into new territories in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal over the next two to three years. This growth plan is expected to increase the number of independent businesses in the courier services market, the tribunal says.