Tamara Dini is the Co-Head of the Bowmans Competition practice, leading a team of lawyers across South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania, 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
• 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 co-Chair of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA International Law Section for 2023-2024.  

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.

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, in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders (Competition) from 2020 to 2023, and in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders (Africa Competition) in 2023. 

She has BA, LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Cape Town.

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 and notable matters in respect of which Tamara has advised include:

Mergers

• 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 The London Stock Exchange Group plc and Refinitiv, in respect of the African competition law aspects of The London Stock Exchange’s acquisition of the issued shares in Refinitiv (global provider of financial markets data). Merger notifications were submitted by Bowmans in Botswana, Kenya (exclusion application), Morocco and South Africa.
• 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 notifications were made by Bowmans in South Africa, Cameroon and COMESA.
• 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, as well as 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.
• Advisor to 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 on the African merger notification obligations for Outotec Oyj’s acquisition of the minerals business of Metso Oyj. In Africa, merger approvals were obtained in COMESA, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa. 
• Advisor to Platform Speciality Products Corp. in respect of the African competition law aspects of its acquisition of Arysta LifeScience Ltd. Tamara led a team of lawyers in obtaining approvals from the COMESA, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania competition authorities. Tamara subsequently advised Platform Specialty Products Corporation in the disposal of Arysta LifeScience Inc. to UPL Corp. Limited. In Africa, merger approvals were granted by competition regulators for CEMAC, COMESA, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. 
• Advisor to China National Agrochemical Corporation in respect of the African merger notifications required for the acquisition of Syngenta AG (fifth largest global M&A transaction of 2016, valued at USD 43 billion). In Africa the transaction was notified in South Africa, Kenya and COMESA.  
• Advisor to SABMiller plc in its transaction with Anheuser-Busch InBev, including merger notifications in all African jurisdictions. This multi-jurisdictional transaction won Global Competition Review’s Deal of the Year 2017 and had an estimated transaction value of USD 102 billion. In Africa, Tamara led the Bowmans team in the submission merger notifications in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Market conduct and behavioural investigations

• Advisor to Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Limited (OMLACSA) and associated and subsidiary companies of Old Mutual Limited, in the context of the South African Competition Commission’s August 2022 dawn raid on eight 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, 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. 
• 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.    

Awards

• Legal 500 ranked Tamara as a Leading Individual for Competition for 2023, and a highly recommended lawyer by the same publication.
• Chambers and Partners consistently ranked Tamara for her work in Competition/ Antitrust law for eight consecutive years in Band 3 (2020-2023) 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.
• Recognised in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Africa Competition in 2023.
• Recognised in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Competition from 2020 to 2023
• 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.
• Listed in Global Competition Review 2018, 2019 and 2020 in the Partners category.
• Awarded Best Lawyer in 2021 and recognised for Competition / Antitrust law by Best Lawyers.

• South Africa: Draft Block Exemption Regulations for Small, Micro and Medium Sized Businesses published for public comment
• COMESA: Penalty imposed for failure to timeously notify a proposed merger
• COMESA: Strengthening cooperation between the COMESA Competition Commission and competition regulators in Member States
• Merger notification under the CEMAC Competition Law Regime
• Nigeria: FCCPC issues Merger Review Regulations and other instruments
• Competition Tribunal confirms consent agreement entered into between Competition Commission and Rooibos Ltd
• COVID-19: Excessive Pricing – A total of 23 consent agreements confirmed by the South African Competition Tribunal
• Kenya Competition Amendment Bill published
• ECOWAS to launch Competition Authority
• Proposed amendments to the market inquiry provisions of the Competition Act, 89 of 1998 (the Act) as set out in the Competition Amendment Bill, 2018
• Keeping the competition strong
• Mozambique introduces Competition Law
• Understanding COMESA
• Hostile take-overs: Too much power to the prey