Altech Autopage was surprised by a last minute objection to the proposed sale of its subscriber bases by VoIP provider, Saicom Voice Services*, but says it remains confident that the sale will go through in time.
Last week the Competition Commission recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the R1.5 billion deal without conditions but the Tribunal this week decided to send the merger back to the Commission for further investigation.
Altech Autopage MD, Boyd Chislett, says the referral of the proposed sale back to the Commission relates only to an assessment of a certain portion of the subscriber bases.
"While we were somewhat surprised by the last minute involvement of the participant, Saicom, in a procedure that has been on-going since 23 September, we fully support the process and are committed to co-operating with the Competition Commission," he says.
In September, Altech's parent company Altron confirmed it would sell the Autopage subscriber base to MTN, Vodacom and Cell C for approximately R1 467 million plus VAT. On 2 December, Alton confirmed 99.99% of shareholders voted for the disposal of Autopage's subscribers at the JSE-listed firm's annual general meeting.
"Following a late submission by a participant on the day of the hearing, the Competition Tribunal referred the transaction back to the Competition Commission to ensure that a portion of the customer base be engaged with regard to the proposed transactions," he says.
Chislett says Autopage has "thoroughly engaged with all stakeholders, including affected parties and the regulator, to ensure a transparent and fair process" from the beginning.
"We would hope that the last minute involvement by the participant in a process that has been ongoing for some time is not opportunistic and is not used as a delaying tactic but that it will provide the Competition Commission with the assistance required to finalise the process, which we remain fully committed in supporting," he adds.
The Commission will now have to submit a supplementary report to the Tribunal on 29 January next year with its findings and a hearing with all the parties is set down for 9 February, 2016.
Chislett says Autopage is confident that the result will still be the approval of the proposed transactions.
"The Competition Commission was specifically asked to determine whether the issues to be investigated will have any bearings on Cell C. Based on their findings, a separate hearing could be set aside [with] Cell C prior to 9 February, 2016," according to the Tribunal.
Saicom is only objecting at this point to MTN and Vodacom's purchase and not to the Cell C transaction with Autopage. The Commission will investigate whether there was prior implementation of the transaction, as alleged by Saicom.
In the meantime the company says it is business as usual for Altech Autopage and its customers.
"Once the sale of the GSM subscriber bases to the respective mobile network operators is complete, existing customer contracts will be transferred and the existing contractual arrangements with Altech Autopage customers at that time, will be maintained on the same terms."
* The Tribunal originally identified the objecting company as Saicon Holdings but later corrected this to Saicom Voice Services.
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