As of 1 October 2017, the recently revised merger thresholds which were published by way of Government Gazette will become effective.

The large merger thresholds have remained unchanged, however, the thresholds for an intermediate merger (which requires mandatory merger notification if met) have been amended as follows:

The combined threshold has been increased to R600 million (approx.US$46 million) R560 million).  The combined threshold for an intermediate merger relates to either the combined turnover of the merging parties’ South African specific turnover or the merging parties combined asset value in South Africa.

The lower merger threshold (i.e. the target’s thresholds) for an intermediate merger has also been increased from R80 million to R100 million (approx. US$7.6 million) For purposes of the lower merger threshold, however, either the turnover or the asset value of the target entity is utilised.

The large merger thresholds remain unchanged with a combined threshold of R6.6 billion (approx. US$500 million) and the target’s threshold at R190 million (approx.US$14.6 million)

For purpose of both the intermediate and large merger thresholds, any combination of the South African specific turnover or asset value of the merging parties which exceed the thresholds will require a mandatory merger notification. In other words, the combined large merger threshold will be met if the acquiring firm’s asset value combined with the target firm’s turnover exceeds R6.6 billion.

In addition to the merger thresholds, the merger filing fees have also been increased and the new filing fees are:

• Intermediate merger: R150 000
• Large merger: R500 000

The merger thresholds were previously revised in 2009 and as John Oxenham, Director of Primerio Ltd., comments “increasing the target’s thresholds for purposes of an intermediate merger will assist in ensuring that transactions which are highly unlikely to result in any anti-competitive effects are subject to the merger control process“. Oxenham also points out that it is noteworthy that the filing fees have increased by 50% in respect of intermediate mergers and more than 40% for large mergers.

In addition to the mandatorily notifiable thresholds, Michael-James Currie notes that “the South African Competition Commission may call for the notification of any transaction which does not meet the intermediate merger thresholds (i.e. a small merger) within 6 months after the transaction has been implemented should the Commission be of the view that the small merger raises competition or public interest concerns“.

[For legal advice, please contact a Primerio representative]