Competition Commission Greenlights the Vumatel-Herotel Deal
Vumatel’s Herotel acquisition moves forward with CCSA approval, ensuring open access, fair competition, and fibre expansion in underserved South African areas.
The Competition Commission of South Africa (CCSA) has recommended that the Competition Tribunal (“Tribunal”) approves the proposed transaction whereby Vumatel intends to acquire Herotel, with conditions.
The primary acquiring firm, Vumatel, is wholly controlled by Community Investment Ventures Holdings (Pty) Ltd (“CIVH”). CIVH also controls several firms including Dark Fibre Africa (Pty) Limited (“DFA”). CIVH, its controlling entities, and its subsidiaries are hereinafter referred to as the “Acquiring Group”.
The Acquiring Group operates through various subsidiaries. Vumatel is a fibre network operator that provides wholesale fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-business (FTTB) infrastructure at the lastmile level to internet service providers (ISPs). DFA largely offers wholesale metropolitan fibre to fixed network operators, mobile network operators and other downstream companies requiring access to its fibre network.
The primary target firm, Herotel, is not controlled by any firm. Herotel operates at the national fibre infrastructure, last-mile fibre infrastructure, retail internet access services and fixed wireless access (FWA) levels of the telecommunications market.
To address competition concerns, the Acquiring Group has agreed to maintain pre-merger open access and to continue to provide services on terms that are transparent and non-discriminatory. Further, Vumatel has also made public interest commitments to roll out FTTH in low-income areas.
