South African Antitrust Group Granted Extension on Chevron Deal

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa's Competition Commission was granted an extension of 15 working days to consult on a proposed deal in which a black-investor group backed by Glencore Plc would buy Chevron Corp.'s assets in southern Africa.

The merging parties -- Off The Shelf Investments Fifty Six Pty Ltd. and Chevron South Africa Pty Ltd. -- opposed the extension application to the Competition Tribunal. The extension was granted “to consult interested parties” over the merger, the commission said in an emailed statement.

Glencore is supporting black-investor group Off The Shelf Investments as a technical and financial partner, it said previously. Off The Shelf's investors own the 25 percent of the southern African business that Chevron doesn't. The assets include a 100,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Cape Town and more than 800 gas stations in South Africa and neighboring Botswana.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, finished a regulatory process for its own bid to buy the assets when the Competition Tribunal in March approved a merger between the company and Chevron's local unit. Off The Shelf has exercised its right of first refusal to bid for the assets.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alastair Reed at areed12@bloomberg.net, ;James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Jacqueline Mackenzie, Renee Bonorchis

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