South African Competition Tribunal approves Glencore-Xstrata merger

The South African Competition Tribunal has cleared the merger of Glencore and Xstrata, leaving China as the only jurisdiction still to approve the deal.

South African approval

The tribunal’s approval of the deal went through smoothly after Eskom, South Africa’s state utility company, withdrew its intervention in the process after reaching an agreement with Glencore that met its concerns over the potential impact of the merger on its coal supplies. Eskom had been concerned that the merger may impact its ability to obtain the coal it requires to generate 85% of South Africa’s electricity.

The tribunal also limited the number of redundancies that can be made following the merger to 80 skilled and 100 unskilled workers. South Africa’s influential National Union of Mineworkers, which had raised concerns about “merger-related retrenchments”, pronounced itself “satisfied” with the deal.

Written by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/22012013/glencore_xstrata_merger_received_south_african_approval/