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SCC GIVES ESSA THE GREEN LIGHT

26/02/2019 07:38:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE – The Swaziland Competition Commission (SCC) has approved the acquisition of Harry O Proprietary Limited.

The commission approved without conditions the acquisition of the entire issued shares of Harry O (Pty) ltd by Samad Abdul Essa.
The acquiring party, Samad Abdul Essa is a liSwati businessman who owns a number of business enterprises in the kingdom.

The target firm, Harry O Proprietary Limited, is a property holding company duly registered in terms of the companies’ law of the kingdom and is involved in enlarging, altering and improving houses, buildings and any other works.

Harry O’s activities also extend to the business of property management on behalf of any person, private companies and individuals.
In their quarterly newsletter for the period between October and December 2018, SCC disclosed that Harry owned five plots in the central business district of Manzini town, Eswatini which were the subject of acquisition in this transaction.

The commission explained that in its analysis of the transaction, the products of the firms were considered and it was concluded that the relevant market was commercial property in the Manzini town of Eswatini.

“The analysis further revealed that there were no overlaps between the activities of the merging firms in the relevant market and as a result of the approved transaction; Essa will acquire 100 per cent shares in Harry O,” announced SCC, whose Chief Executive Officer is Thabisile Langa.

approval

The commission clarified that the transaction’s approval without conditions was based on results revealed by analysis, stating that the market shares in the relevant markets, market concentration, countervailing power and barriers to entry will not be affected and hence the transaction was unlikely to result in the substantial lessening or prevention of competition.

During the same quarter, SCC approved two other merger transactions which were the acquisition of Howe Investments (Pty) Ltd’s 50 per cent shareholding in Blackduke (Pty) Ltd by John Douglas Morris and the acquisition of Pimenta’s KFC (PTY) Ltd by Alliance Foods (Pty) Ltd.

Morris is a liSwati businessman and Managing Director of farming operations at Blackduke (Pty) Ltd, which acquired Howe Investments (Pty) Ltd’s.
Blackduke is a privately-owned company incorporated in accordance with the company laws of the country. It is located in Mafutseni, Manzini. SCC explained that prior to the acquisition, Blackduke was equally owned by Majenca (Pty) Ltd and Howe Investments (Pty) Ltd.