Watchdog increases Sasol fine

Johannesburg - The Competition Commission has increased the penalty imposed on SA synthetic fuels group Sasol for cartel conduct in the fertiliser business from R188m to R251m.

The amended agreement comes on the eve of a competition tribunal hearing on Wednesday.

Sasol Chemical Industries has "now admitted fully" that it has contravened the Competition Act, the competition commission said in a statement.

The commission said Sasol had also "identified additional related conduct that goes to the heart of the commission's collusion case in the Nutri-Flo referral".

This includes meetings of Sasol Nitro, Omnia and Kynoch (now Yara) to fix prices and agree discounts.

While the commission's approach to settlement is to incentivise timeous and full disclosure of conduct as part of cooperation, "this conduct has been revealed by Sasol extremely late in the day".

As a result, Sasol has agreed to pay a higher penalty, from 6% to 8% of turnover of the Sasol Nitro Division.

The amount they will pay has consequently been increased. Sasol said that additional and relevant information was uncovered last week in the course of Sasol's ongoing investigation into anti-competitive behaviour within its fertiliser and phosphoric acid business.

The petrochemicals giant had last week agreed to settle the case by paying R188m - the highest settlement ever reached by the Competition Commission.

But it has since tendered an amendment to the previously announced settlement agreement, to expand the scope of the admissions that Sasol made in respect of the anti-competitive conduct in the fertiliser industry.

"The Competition Commission agreed to the amendments but indicated that the amendment would require an increase in the administrative fine, that Sasol agrees to pay in terms of the settlement agreement.

"The information changed the commission's view of the nature and seriousness of one of the matters covered by the settlement agreement," Sasol said in a separate statement.

The Competition Commission said it hopes to encourage early and substantive cooperation.

"While it is commendable that Sasol's ongoing internal review has uncovered conduct substantiating our findings, this conduct should have been uncovered when the commission initiated its investigation five years ago and certainly prior to the settlement agreement signed earlier this month," said commissioner Shan Ramburuth.

At 14:30 shares in Sasol were trading 221c firmer at R301.71.

- I-Net Bridge