---

COMPETITION TRIBUNAL OF SOUTH AFRICA

 

Case no: LM170Dec20

 

 

In the matter between:

 

 

Mercantile Bank, a division of

Capitec Bank Ltd                                                        Primary Acquiring Firm

 

And

 

The Loan Book owned by Grobank

Ltd                                                                               Primary Target Firm

 

 

Panel : Y Carrim (Presiding Member), F Tregenna (Tribunal Member), I Valodia (Tribunal Member)

 

Heard on : 24 February 2021

Order Issued on : 24 February 2021

Reasons Issued on : 25 February 2021

 

 

REASONS FOR DECISION

 

 

Unconditional approval

 

[1]    On 24 February 2021, the Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal”) unconditionally approved the proposed transaction in terms of which Mercantile Bank (“Mercantile”) intends to acquire the Loan Book owned by Grobank Ltd (the “Loan Book”).

 

[2]    The reasons for the approval of the proposed transaction follow.

 

Parties to the transaction

 

[3]    The acquiring firm is Mercantile, a banking division of Capitec Bank.[1]

 

Mercantile and its controllers will be referred to as the “Acquiring Group”.

 

[4]    The Acquiring Group is active in the provision of business and commercial banking services in South Africa (SA). These services span from transactional and savings plans, forex services to electronic banking, borrowing solutions and retail banking.

 

[5]    The target asset is the Loan Book owned by Grobank[2] The Loan Book consists of loans owned by Grobank across three product categories, namely, (i) Commercial property loans; (ii) Instalment sales agreements; and (iii) Residential home loans.

 

Proposed transaction

 

[6]    Mercantile intends to acquire the Loan Book from Grobank. Post-merger, Mercantile will own the Loan Book.

 

Competition Analysis

 

[7]    The merger parties are both active in the provision of banking services in SA, particularly in narrower segments being the three product categories identified above. However, the merged entity will have minimal market shares in the implicated market segments, with commercial property <2%, instalment sales agreements <1%, and residential home loans <1%.[3]

 

[8]    The merged entity will be constrained by larger banks like Nedbank Ltd, First National Bank[4], ABSA Bank Ltd and Standard Bank Ltd post-merger. Accordingly, the transaction does not give rise to any competition concerns.

 

Public interest

 

[9]    The proposed transaction does not give rise to any public interest concerns. [5]

 

Conclusion

 

[10]  In light of the above, the proposed transaction was approved unconditionally.

 

Date: 25 February 2021

 

Ms Yasmin Carrim

Prof. Imraan Valodia and Prof. Fiona Tregenna concurring.

 

Tribunal Case Manager : Kgothatso Kgobe

For the Merging Parties : M Griffiths of Norton Rose Fulbright

For the Commission : Y Okharedia and R Darji

---