Competition Tribunal Approves Burger King Takeover – But With Certain Conditions

THE Competition Tribunal has given the green light to the acquisition of Burger King South Africa (BKSA) by a private equity fund.

Licence owner, Grand Parade Investments, can now move ahead with the disposal of the brand to pan-African private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) – pending all the final approvals.

The deal was initially denied approval in June with the Competition Commission citing a lack of BEE credentials.

The basis of the decision was not as a result of concerns around competition, but that “the proposed merger cannot be justified on substantial public interest grounds”.

The commission said that the proposed merger would have a “substantial negative effect on the promotion of greater spread of ownership”, in particular to increase the levels of ownership by historically disadvantaged persons in firms in the market as contemplated in section 12A(3)(e) of the Competition Act”.

It noted that the holding of