The Competition Commission has finally given the thumbs up to the majority sale of SAA to Takatso Consortium. The announcement follows the Commission’s 11-month investigation into the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in SAA by Takatso Consortium.
The Competition Commission says it approved the deal on condition that Takatso agrees to retain a minimum number of employees.
Another condition includes starting a process to allow some shareholders in the consortium to exit the deal in the spirit of fair competition in the domestic airline.
This after the Commission found that the merger was likely result in lessened competition as some shareholders in Takatso were linked to SAA rival company Lift Airline.
The Commission says this is to prevent the sharing of sensitive information among competing airlines.
Commission’s spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga , “In its assessment, the Commission found that the merger is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition in the domestic market. That is because the merger will likely facilitate the exchange of competitive sensitive information between SAA and Lift through Global Aviation, will completely divest from Takatso prior to the merger implementation.”
South African Airways | Making sense of Takatso Consortium 51% share in SAA:
