Advised Sibanye-Stillwater on its Cleared Acquisition of Lonmin

In June 2018, the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) cleared the $286 million acquisition of British Lonmin by South-African based Sibanye-Stillwater. A few months later, in November 2018, the South African Competition Tribunal also approved the merger, albeit subject to employment-related conditions. Both Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin are predominantly active in the mining of platinum group metals and the transaction would create the world’s second-largest platinum producer.

Compass Lexecon provided economic advice to Sibanye-Stillwater in relation to merger control issues arising from the proposed acquisition. We assisted with proceedings at the South African Competition Commission and during the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) review process. We conducted a market share analysis and made an assessment of the unilateral effects of the transaction by means of a critical loss analysis.

The Compass Lexecon team included Neil Dryden, Julian Delamer, John Davies, Andrew Swan and Orjan Sandewall.