Law & Regulation
Determination of Merger Thresholds and Method of Calculation
Fixes the turnover/asset-value thresholds determining whether a merger is intermediate or large and requires notification to the South African competition authorities, and fixes associated filing fees. Effective 1 May 2026 — the first threshold revision since 2017. No relationship to the Competition Act (ZA-L-053) is persisted, since none is frozen in the Legal Master despite the notice operating under that Act.
Legal Significance
What This Instrument Does
For an intermediate merger, the combined annual turnover or asset value of the acquiring and target firms must equal or exceed R1 billion (up from R600 million), and the target firm's own turnover/asset value must equal or exceed R200 million (up from R100 million). For a large merger, the combined threshold is R9.5 billion (up from R6.6 billion) and the target-firm threshold is R280 million (up from R190 million). The Method of Calculation remains General Notice 1003 of 2017, unchanged by the 2026 revision. Filing fees are R220,000 (intermediate) and R735,000 (large). Instrument boundary: does not restate the Competition Act's substantive merger-control tests, public-interest review criteria or prohibited-practice provisions — confined to the subordinate threshold/fee/calculation-method notice that determines notification reach.
Key Provisions
- Intermediate merger thresholds
Combined turnover/assets ≥ R1 billion; target firm turnover/assets ≥ R200 million. Practical consequence: determining whether a South African merger-control filing is required is a routine gating item for project transactions — an assessment against older thresholds could be wrongly classified.
- Large merger thresholds
Combined turnover/assets ≥ R9.5 billion; target firm turnover/assets ≥ R280 million.
- Method of Calculation (General Notice 1003 of 2017, unchanged) and filing fees
Method of Calculation remains unchanged; filing fees are R220,000 (intermediate) and R735,000 (large).
Legal Framework Position
- CompetitionImplementing Instrument
Instrument Overview
- Official Citation
- Gazette notice under the Competition Act 89 of 1998; Government Gazette 54020, GoN 7029; thresholds effective 1 May 2026
- Instrument Type
- Regulation
- Source Language
- English
- Effective Date
- 1 May 2026
- Last Verified
- 6 September 2026