FORESTRY COMPANIES IN MERGER

MBABANE – South Africa’s Competition Tribunal is said to have approved a merger involving Shiselweni Forestry Company and Peak Timber and Peak Forest Products (PFP).

According to the report, the tribunal did, however, stipulate conditions related to the sawn and untreated mining timber, final product mining timber, untreated transmission poles, building and fencing poles, treated building and fencing poles and pulp and saw logs markets.

Plantations

Shiselweni Forestry is a company located in Nhlangano here in Eswatini. Its plantations include wattle, eucalyptus and pine. It is wholly owned by TWK Investments, a company incorporated in South Africa.TWK Investments is, in-turn, controlled by TWK Agriculture Holdings, which focuses on supplying agricultural and related services. Of relevance to this transaction are TWK’s activities relating to the supply of treated and untreated transmission poles, building and fencing poles, mining timber logs, pulp logs and woodchips. Peak Timber, on other hand, is a firm incorporated in South Africa, while PFP is incorporated here in the country (Eswatini).

Operations

Peak Timber is involved in planting, harvesting, processing and selling timber and timber-related products. PFP is involved in sawmilling operations. Both firms have their principal place of business here in Eswatini and neither have assets in South Africa.
From their plantations, they supply untreated transmission poles, untreated building and fencing poles, untreated mining timber logs (not sawn), pulp logs and woodchips to customers in SA. South Africa’s Competition Tribunal, it its official website, reported that it had conditionally approved the merger whereby Shiselweni Forestry Company Ltd will acquire the businesses being conducted by both Northern Hhohho-based Peak Timber Ltd and Peak Forest Products (Pty) Ltd as going concerns. Post-merger, Shiselweni will wholly own the target firms.

Submissions

“Following a hearing during which the commission and merger parties made submissions, the Tribunal has approved the transaction subject to various conditions to secure supply for existing customers of the target firms,” said Gillian de Gouveia, the Tribunal’s Communications Officer. An insider from one of the companies involved in the reported merger confirmed the developments on conditions of anonymity. Attempts to ascertain if Eswatini Competition Commission approved the merger were fruitless at the time of compiling this report.

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