South Africa’s Competition Tribunal has approved British American Tobacco’s (BAT) proposed takeover of e-cigarette maker Twisp.
The takeover bid had been announced in 2017 but was faced with opposition. In July 2018, the Competition Commission recommended the prohibition of the deal and this past May local rivals said they wanted to intervene in the proposed merger.
The Commission has now changed its recommendation to a conditional approval, based on certain conditions. Under these conditions, the combined group would not be allowed to agree with retailers to allocate their products more than 70% of visible sales space given to e-cigarettes, nor would they be allowed to incentivize retailers to deny space to rival products.
The conditions will apply for five years. There should also be no retrenchments or job cuts as a result of the proposed deal for a period of two years from the date on which the transaction is implemented.