Amendment of the Small Merger Guidelines: What dealmakers need to know
The Competition Commission has published draft amendments to its Small Merger Guidelines for public comment, aligning the small merger notification criteria with the revised merger thresholds that took effect on 1 May 2026. On 14 August 2026, the Competition Commission (Commission) gazetted draft amendments to its Guidelines on Small Merger Notification (Small Merger Guidelines) and invited interested parties and stakeholders to submit written comments within 30 days of publication. The only proposed change to the existing Small Merger Guidelines is the increase of the monetary thresholds. The proposed amendments stem from the increase in merger notification thresholds that came into force earlier this year. Because the existing Small Merger Guidelines benchmark their notification criteria against the regulated large merger thresholds, the upward revision of those thresholds earlier in the year necessitated corresponding changes to the Small Merger Guidelines. While the Co...