The Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, in consultation with the Competition Commission, has amended the merger notification thresholds and merger filing fees in South Africa, with effect from 1 May 2026.
There remain two categories of mergers that attract mandatory notification obligations and require approval prior to implementation. These are intermediate and large mergers – mergers that fall below the intermediate merger thresholds are categorised as small mergers and are notifiable only in limited circumstances.
In terms of the amendments, the revised merger thresholds and filing fees are the following:
|
Category |
Lower Threshold: Target Firm Values |
Higher threshold: Combined Target Firm and Acquiring Firm Values |
Merger filing fees |
|||
|
Old |
New |
Old |
New |
Old |
New |
|
|
Intermediate merger |
RÂ 100Â million |
R 200Â million |
RÂ 600Â million |
RÂ 1 billion |
R 165,000 |
R 220,000 |
|
Large merger |
RÂ 190Â million |
RÂ 280 million |
RÂ 6.6 billion |
RÂ 9.5 billion |
R 550,000 |
R 735,000 |
The amendments do not impact the methodology for the calculation of assets and turnover values for threshold calculation purposes.
The Government Gazette Notices provide for an effective date of 1 May 2026, although the Minister signed the amendments on 4 May 2026 and the Government Gazette was published on 8 May 2026. Notably, the Government Gazette Notices do not contain transitional provisions. Consideration will need to be given to transactions already notified to the Competition Commission before 8 May 2026 (including those notified between 1 and 8 May 2026), as well as transactions that have been signed but not yet notified.
