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Tamara Dini

Tamara Dini

Co-Head of Competition
Cape Town, South Africa
T: +27 21 480 7910
E: tamara.dini@bowmanslaw.com
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  • Overview
  • Experience
  • Publications & Insights

Overview

Tamara Dini is the Co-Head of the Bowmans Competition practice, leading a team of lawyers across South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Tamara’s practice reflects her intricate knowledge of the ever-evolving African competition regulatory landscape and her enduring connections with practitioners and regulators across Africa, as well as with top tier international law firms.  Her expertise in African competition law, and her thoughtful and balanced approach makes her a trusted expert in respect of complex and high-profile multi-jurisdictional mergers and behavioural matters on the continent. 

Tamara has advised clients in respect of merger control in Botswana, CEMAC, COMESA, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  She has represented clients in behavioural investigations before the competition authorities in COMESA, Namibia, South Africa, and Botswana.  She has also provided advice to clients on the latest amendments to the South African Competition Act, including developing guidelines for compliance with newly introduced provisions and guidelines concerning buyer power and price discrimination.

Tamara has provided advice in respect of highly complex and multi-jurisdiction competition matters.  Her experience extends across a broad range of sectors, including:

  • advertising (including marketing, merchandising and communications)
  • agriculture (including agrochemicals)
  • airline catering services
  • chemicals
  • construction and cement
  • energy (oil and gas)
  • financial services
  • food and beverages
  • health and fitness
  • mining and mineral processing
  • motor vehicles and transport
  • packaging
  • pharmaceuticals (human and animal pharmaceuticals) and life sciences
  • tobacco

Tamara is a member of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section. She is also a member of the Steering Group of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA International Law Section.  Tamara is a member of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Section. She is also a member of the Steering Group of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA International Law Section. 

Tamara is a highly recommended lawyer by Legal 500 and is currently ranked as a Band 3 competition practitioner by Chambers Global.  She has been recognised by Who’s Who Legal (Competition category) since 2017 to 2021 and was recognised in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders (Competition category) in 2020, 2021 and again in 2022.  Tamara is one of only two competition lawyers in South Africa to receive recognition in this category.  She has BA, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Cape Town.

Specialist Services

Relevant Experience

Tamara advises on the interpretation of competition laws across a number of African jurisdictions and provides advice in all areas of competition law including vertical and horizontal restrictive practices, abuse of dominance, merger control (including public interest considerations) and dawn raids and assists clients with competition audits and compliance and training.

She has been involved in several key and complex mergers, including hostile takeovers and multi-jurisdictional transactions and several behavioural investigations. Highlights of the recent notable matters in respect of which Tamara has advised are: 

Recent merger experience

  • Advisor to Hitachi Rail, Limited in its proposed acquisition of the Ground Transportation Systems Business of Thales SA, for an enterprise value of EUR 1.66 billion.  Bowmans represented the parties before the South African and COMESA competition authorities.
  • Advisor to Vitol Group in respect of the African competition law aspects of the acquisition of control of UK listed entity, Vivo Energy plc. Bowmans coordinated the competition notifications in Botswana, Cape Verde, COMESA, CEMAC, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and WAEMU.
  • Advisor to Cargotec Corporation in respect of its acquisition of Konecranes Plc. This transaction received conditional approval by the European Commission (EC) in February 2022 but was abandoned in March 2022, after the UK Competition & Markets Authority prohibited the transaction, based on the same remedy package as that accepted by the EC.  
  • Advisor to ADQ in respect of the African multi-jurisdictional merger filings required in respect of ADQ’s acquisition of an interest in Louis Dreyfus Company BV. ADQ is owned by the state of Abu-Dhabi and is a holding company with direct and indirect investments in key sectors, including food and agriculture, logistics, transport, and utilities. Merger approvals in Africa were granted in South Africa, Cameroon and COMESA.
  • Advisor to JAS Worldwide Omni-Channel, LLC in respect of the African competition law aspects of its acquisition of Tigers Ltd (a company operating internationally, in the freight forwarding and supply chain management space).
  • South African competition counsel to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. in respect of its proposed acquisition of PPD, Inc., a transaction which completed in December 2021. In South Africa, the transaction was approved subject to a moratorium on merger-related job losses.
  • South African competition counsel to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. in respect of its proposed acquisition of Qiagen N.V. The transaction was abandoned in 2020, after Qiagen shareholders failed to support it.
  • Advised on the African merger notification obligations for Outotec Oyj’s acquisition of the minerals business of Metso Oyj. Tamara led the team advising on the African merger control process, where approvals were obtained in COMESA, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa.  Bowmans was named Competition Team of the Year for its work on the African component of this transaction in the African Legal Awards (2020).
  • Advised Elanco Animal Health Inc. in its acquisition of the animal health business of Bayer AG. The transaction was approved in South Africa subject to the divestiture of Elanco’s anticoccidial product, Vecoxan, and associated assets, and a moratorium on merger-related job losses. Tamara also represented Elanco before the South African Competition Commission in respect the divestiture of Vecoxan to Merck & Co., Inc., which was approved unconditionally. 
  • Advised Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in respect of the African competition law aspects of the ‘merger of equals’ with Peugeot owner, Groupe PSA. While the South African Competition Commission considered that the merger would result in overlaps in South Africa, the transaction was approved subject to limited conditions, acceptable to the merging parties.
  • Advised the Boeing Company in its acquisition of control of the commercial aviation business of Embraer S.A. In Africa, merger approvals were obtained in Kenya and South Africa.  Boeing and Embraer abandoned the transaction in April 2020.

Recent market conduct and behavioural investigations experience

  • Advisor to Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Limited and associated and subsidiary companies of Old Mutual Limited, in the context of the South African Competition Commission’s August 2022 dawn raid on 8 insurance companies for alleged unlawful conduct between competitors.
  • Advisor to Robert Bosch GmbH in the South African Competition Commission’s investigation into the automotive components sector. A consent agreement was concluded in this matter in 2022, with no admission of liability on the part of Robert Bosch GmbH.   
  • Advisor to Total S.A. in relation to the COMESA Competition Commission’s investigation into agreements concluded by Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) and Lagardère Sports and Entertainment S.A.S.U. for the commercialization of broadcasting and marketing rights for CAF events. This matter was one of COMESA’s first behavioural investigations.  The investigation against Total S.A. was closed in 2021.
  • Advisor to Namib Mills in relation to the first allegation of abuse of dominance raised by the Namibian Competition Commission. The Namibian Commission’s investigation was initiated following a complaint lodged by Bokomo in respect of the supply of wheat flour. In this significant case, which currently prevails, the High Court of Namibia found in favour of the Namibian Competition Commission’s approach to exclusive arrangements.   

Publications & insights

Tamara is one of the coordinators of Bowmans’ annual Africa Conference, which provides a platform for competition practitioners and regulators across Africa to share experiences, debate issues and discuss competition law developments and priorities in their jurisdictions.  In conjunction with the conference, the Bowmans team oversees the publication of the Bowmans Africa Competition Law Guide.  The latest version covers 24 African jurisdictions and is available here.  Other notable publications include.

Awards

  • Chambers and Partners consistently ranked Tamara for her work in Competition/ Antitrust law for eight consecutive years in Band 3 (2020-2022) and Band 4 (2015 to 2019).
  • Tamara was featured as one of only three women in Africa for her work in the competition space by Global Competition Review, 2021.
  • Recognised in Who’s Who Legal – Competition from 2017 to 2021.
  • Recognised in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Competition for three years (2020, 2021 and again in 2022). Tamara is one of only two competition lawyers in South Africa to receive recognition in this category, the other also being from Bowmans.
  • Led the team in South Africa that advised Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. in relation to the combination of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot S.A. to form Stellantis (this transaction was awarded Matter of the Year in the GCR Awards 2021).

Publications & Insights