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Cape Town - The Competition Tribunal has approved the merger between Clarkbiz (ultimately owned by Investec) and Uvundlu (controlled by Imperial Holdings) on Wednesday.
Clarkbiz is ultimately owned by Investec through Uni-Span, while Uvundlu is controlled by Imperial Holdings.
The approval means Clarkbiz will acquire 50% of the issued shares of Uvundlu. This will give Clarkbiz control of Uvundlu.
Clarkbiz is involved in the processing and supply of rolled steel and the supply and dismantling of formwork and scaffolding.
Uvundlu controls wholly-owned subsidiaries, collectively called “the Goscor Group of companies”, which are involved in the import and sale of forklifts, supply of industrial and commercial cleaning products, distribution of compaction and earthmoving equipment, as well as the sale of compressors and mobile elevating work platforms.
The Goscor Group of companies consist of Goscor Rental Company; Goscor Lift Truck; Goscor Power Products; Goscor Finance KLG; Goscor Access Rental; Goscor Hi-Reach Manlift, Bobcat Equipment South Africa, Goscor Cleaning Equipment and Goscor Cleaning Companies.
The Tribunal queried whether these companies and subsidiaries would be run as separate entities and was assured they would be.
There was also some concern about whether there existed an overlap between “powered access equipment” and “access scaffolding” and the Tribunal wanted to ensure there were no competition conerns. It was agreed that - while there was bit of an overlap, they had different functions.
The black economic empowerment (BEE) holding will increase due to the transaction, moving from 11% through Imperial to just over 25%.
