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Mergers get commission's thumbs-up

Posted On Monday, 10 November 2003 02:00 Published by
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The following mergers have been approved by the Competition Commission

The Competitions Commission recently approved the following property transactions:

MERGERS: Intermediate merger - ApexHi Properties Ltd and Resilient Properties (Pty) Ltd

The transaction would see ApexHi acquire one property from Resilient Properties (Pty) Ltd that is classified as a grade B office property in Durban.

ApexHi already owns certain grade B office property in the city. However, the increased market share amounts to only about 2%.

Intermediate merger - Allan Gray Property Trust and MIFA Industrial Park.

The primary acquiring firm is Allan Gray Property Trust, a property holding company, which has a property portfolio of office, retail, and industrial property.

The primary target firm is MIFA Industrial Park which has portfolio of rentable industrial property. In terms of the present transaction, Allan Gray intends to acquire MIFA, situated in Midrand. The effect of the transaction is that post merger MIFA will form part of the Allan Gray industrial property portfolio.

The post merger market shares are relatively low and do not raise competition concerns.

Intermediate merger - Paramount Property Fund and Mercantile and General Investments South Africa.

Paramount is purchasing a property in Claremont, Cape Town, from Mercantile, where there is an overlap in the market for rentable A Grade office blocks in the Cape Town and environs area.

Post merger the merged entity will have very low (4,5%) market share in the relevant market.

Intermediate merger - Prima Property Trust and Hyprop Investments.

The primary acquiring firm, Prima Property Trust, is acquiring property from Hyprop Investments Limited.

Both Prima and Hyprop own property portfolios, with Hyprop's main business being the rental of retail and office properties in the northern and southern suburbs of Johannesburg, Sandton and Midrand.

The properties being acquired are Grade A and B office blocks. However, there are no overlaps in the relevant geographic markets.

In all the mergers, the commission found it was unlikely that the partnerships would substantially prevent or lessen competition. It also ruled that no significant public interest issues arise from the mergers, and therefore approved them without any strings attached


Publisher: The Star
Source: The Star
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