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Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
The Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) has said it received five requests for merger approval in the first quarter of the year, a development that shows the ease of doing business in the country.
A merger is the direct or indirect acquisition or establishment of a controlling interest in the whole or part of another business.
According to the latest CTC first quarter report, the proposed mergers include a proposal by Sovereign Wealth Fund to acquire Dayriver Corporation Limited and the acquisition of Industrial Commodities Holdings by Kali Union Verwal Tunsgesilischaft.
The Commission also received a request from Shepco Industrial Supplies Private Limited to acquire Haggie Rand Zimbabwe while Investors in Africa-Takura made an application to acquire Davis Granite Private. Aluminum Metal Industries also requested to acquire RD Architectural Aluminium and Lupane Timbers and City Glass.
In an interview, CTC director Ms Ellen Ruparanganda told Sunday News Business that it was commendable to have an increase in requests for merger approval.
“Usually when it is an election year, the volume of requests for merger approvals would be low.
“However, for the first quarter of the year, we witnessed a surge in the number of requests.
“These are signs that there is confidence in the conducive business environment of the country and the Government measures are bearing fruits,” she said.
Businesses intending to merge have to do a merger notification, the process of alerting the competition authority of the intention of parties to merge or generally combine into one entity.
The reasons for such notification is to enable CTC to review the merger within its jurisdiction with a view to prevent anti-competitive consequences that may arise as a result of the merger.
Merger notification in Zimbabwe is prescribed in terms of the Competition Act (Chapter 14:28), administered by the Commission as mandated in Section (5) to encourage and promote competition in all sectors of the economy of Zimbabwe.
To achieve this, CTC reviews mergers to ensure that they do not result in substantial lessening of competition (SLC) in the market.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter, the Commission approved the acquisition of Shanksville Farming Private Limited by Annunaki Investments as well as the acquisition of Marsh Zimbabwe Limited by the country’s largest financial services group, Old Mutual Limited.
In terms of the acquisition of Shanksville Farming by Annunaki Investments, the CTC said given the analysis, they approved the merger on a number of conditions. Among them being the submission of compliance reports to the Commission annually, commencing December 2023.
CTC said for the acquisition of Marsh Zimbabwe by Old Mutual Zimbabwe, given the analysis and the consideration that the merged entities will continue to operate separately and that the merger was not substantially lessening competition, they approved the merger without conditions.
The Commission is a statutory body established in terms of the Competition Act (Chapter 14:28) to implement and enforce Zimbabwe’s Competition Policy and Law.
The Act provides for, as one of the Commission’s functions, the investigation, prevention and discouraging of restrictive practices which are contrary to public interest.
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