By GIFT NDOLWANE
JOHANNESBURG – SOUTH Africa’s Competition Tribunal has approved a number of mergers, including the amalgamation of financial giant Bidvest Bank and the Fulcrum Group.
The target firm, Fulcrum, provides premium handling services, including debit order collections and premium disbursements. It also finances annual
insurance premiums and provides broker acquisition financing.
The tribunal also approved the merger of Firefly Investments 326 and Bayport Financial Services 2010.
Post-merger Firefly Investments will control BFSSA. The primary acquiring firm is a newly formed entity for the transaction.
The target firm, Bayport Financial Services 2010, was wholly-owned and controlled subsidiary of Bayport Management. It is a financial institution
specialising in the provision of unsecured personal loans in South Africa.
The merger between KAP Diversified Industrial and Safripol Holdings has also approved.
KAP is an investment company which invests in a number of industrial businesses mainly falling within two segments, diversified logistics and
diversified industrial. Safripol is a producer of polymers, namely high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene.
Meanwhile, the tribunal confirmed a settlement agreement with Phambili Pipelines after the latter was found guilty of collusion in 2008 in
relation to a Thabazimbi project in Limpopo.
The competition Commission discovered Cycad Pipelines, the winning bidder in the project, Phambili and the Delatoy Group, entered into a collusive
tendering arrangement with regards to the project.
This involved the winning bidder paying a loser’s fee to each of the two companies that lost the bid. The fees were paid by Cycad Pipelines to
Phambili Pipelines and the Delatoy Group.
The commission also entered into a settlement agreement with Cycad, in which the company was fined R3, 394 million. Delatoy paid an
administrative penalty of R4, 136 million.
– CAJ News