Competition Tribunal approves unconditional purchase of DiverCity
Today the Competition Tribunal unconditionally cleared the proposed acquisition, by Nedbank and RMH Property, of shares in DiverCity Urban Property Fund, which is a property holding and development fund specialising in urban renewal projects. The Competition Commission, which assesses large mergers prior to referring them to the Tribunal for its decision, had initially recommended that the proposed merger be approved subject to conditions aimed at preventing the exchange of competitively sensitive information between the acquiring firms and their competitors. This was because both Nedbank and RMH hold other property interests outside of their investment in DiverCity which the Commission alleged were competitors of DiverCity.
The merging parties opposed the Commission's conditions on the basis that they would negatively affect their business model and their investments.
After hearing three witnesses from the merging parties who testified that there was no risk of anti-competitive information sharing, as their other investments were not in the same market as DiverCity, the Tribunal approved the merger without conditions.
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