Tribunal Conditionally Approves Shoprite’s Acquisition Of Certain Massmart Owned Stores
Tribunal Conditionally Approves Shoprite’s Acquisition Of Certain Massmart Owned Stores. The Tribunal has approved, with conditions, the proposed merger wherein Shoprite Supermarkets (Pty) Ltd (“Shoprite”) intends to acquire certain retail supermarket stores, wholesale and retail liquor stores, wholesale stores and the Massfresh business from Massmart Holdings Limited.
The conditions imposed by the Tribunal seek to address identified competition and public interest concerns and include the divestiture of certain retail stores by Massmart as well as public interest commitments relating to employment; the spread of ownership; localisation; and retailer, supplier and skills development.
There will be no retrenchments as a result of the merger since all employees of the stores that are being disposed of by Massmart to Shoprite will be transferred to the Shoprite Group in line with the Labour Relations Act on no less favourable terms (including wages, working conditions and benefits) to those which apply pre-merger. In addition, Shoprite Group undertakes to create additional permanent employment opportunities at its local operations.
The Shoprite Group will establish and implement the Shoprite Employee Share Ownership Programme (“ESOP”) within 60 days of the merger implementation date. The ESOP will hold 40 million shares in Shoprite and employees’ participation will be by way of holding units, at no cost. Among others, employees will be required to have been employed by the Shoprite Group for a minimum specified period before being eligible to join the ESOP.
Employees from the ‘Highly Problematic’ stores will immediately be eligible to join the ESOP following implementation of the merger, provided that they have been employed at the Highly Problematic Stores for a minimum specified period. Employees that are part of any other long term incentive scheme will not be eligible to join the ESOP.
