The Competition Tribunal has approved the acquisition of underground mining and tunnelling multinational DSI Underground by mining engineering multinational Sandvik, with employment conditions.
After the merger, Sandvik will acquire sole control of DSI and Jennmar, which is a South African joint venture between DSI and diversified manufacturing and engineering services company Frank Calandra.
"The tribunal has concluded that the transaction is unlikely to substantially prevent or lessen competition in any relevant market in South Africa.
"However, the merger has been approved subject to the conditions relating to employment, including that the merger parties may not retrench any employees in South Africa as a result of the merger for a period of two years after the merger has been implemented," the tribunal notes.
Additionally, should the need to retrench employees arise after the moratorium period, the merger parties shall for a further two-year period give preference to any affected employees in relation to any available vacancies that may arise within any wholly owned subsidiaries and/or divisions that are operationally under the control of the merger parties, provided they have the requisite qualifications, skills, know-how and experience, it adds.
Sandvik is a publicly listed Swedish company that controls several firms in South Africa.
In South Africa, it is predominantly active in providing mining and rock solutions, as well as manufacturing and machining solutions.
DSI is incorporated in Luxembourg. In South Africa, DSI, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and supplies specialised ground control products to the South African underground mining and geotechnical industries.