Authority to levy fees on company mergers
What you need to know:
- These costs, according to the authority, include payment of staff involved in reviewing mergers, board members expenses, research as well as charges related to meetings with parties involved in the process and their competitors.
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) will start charging fees to approve mergers and takeovers next month.
In a newspaper ad yesterday, the authority said fees will be pegged on sizes of the companies involved in deals. Firms whose combined turnover or assets, whichever is higher, are between Sh500 million and Sh1 billion will pay Sh500,000 along with their applications to CKAK.
Currently, the authority does not levy any money to analyse proposed mergers. On previous occasions, it has said that the fees will be used to recoup costs incurred in granting approvals.
Companies whose combined turnover or assets amount to Sh50 billion will be charged Sh1 million while deals larger than that will be subject to a filing fee of Sh2 million.
“The thresholds and proposed fees take into a account the recovery of a proportion of the costs,” said CAK in a document posted on its website.
Payment of staff
These costs, according to the authority, include payment of staff involved in reviewing mergers, board members expenses, research as well as charges related to meetings with parties involved in the process and their competitors.
“One thing is that this was the only organisation in the world that was offering merger applications pro bono. The merger filing fees have gone through consultative process. They are based on cost recouped.
The fees help us build the capacity to collect more information when we are analysing mergers. They are among the lowest filing fees in the world,” CAK director general Wang’ombe Kariuki said.
