Oceana had been emphatic that it would not continue with the transaction if it could not have the rights allocated to Foodcorp by the Department of Agriculture‚ Forestry and Fisheries for its catch of small pelagic fish.
Oceana said there would be no commercial basis for it to proceed with the transaction on the conditions imposed by the Competition Commission.
The Competition Tribunal approved the transaction on the conditions initially imposed by the commission. The companies had taken the conditional approval by the commission on review before the tribunal and evidence was heard at hearings before the tribunal earlier this year.
The tribunal has approved the transaction with the same conditions - that the merging parties sell Foodcorp's fishing rights and its Glenryck pilchards brand to a willing and able independent third party.
The commission asked for the condition‚ which would deprive Oceana of Foodcorp's fishing quota‚ as a way of preventing market dominance.
Oceana owns the Lucky Star brand of canned fish‚ and Foodcorp the Glenryck brand. Together they would be dominant in the canned fish market as they would have a market share of more than 80%.
The commission argued that Glenryck would not be able to provide competition to Lucky Star without its own fishing quota.
The merging parties led evidence before the tribunal that it would be able to compete without the fishing rights as there was already a willing and able buyer in the form of Bidfish (Bidvest Namibia Fisheries) for the Glenryck brand. It said Bidfish had sufficient quota to ensure that Glenryck would remain a viable competitor.
The tribunal said it would issue the reasons for its decision at a later stage.
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