CAK approves buyout of Abercrombie & Kent

Bahamas-based Heritour Limited has received approval from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) to complete its full buyout of the local subsidiary of Luxembourg-based tour firm, Abercrombie & Kent (A&K).

The target firm, A&K, has several subsidiaries in Kenya, one of them being Abercrombie & Kent Kenya Limited, one of the 328 registered local tour operators, according to the Kenya Association of Tour Operators (KATO).

The local subsidiary, according to Kato, is among the 36 elite tour firms in Kenya that post annual gross earnings of over Sh120 million. “It is the Authority’s view that post-merger, A&K’s market share will not change since the acquirer is newly incorporated and does not have similar business in Kenya,” CAK said in a statement.

“The transaction is therefore unlikely to lead to substantial lessening of competition in the market for tour operation services.”

CAK added that the parties’ combined turnover for the preceding year was over Sh1 billion and, therefore, the transaction met the threshold for full merger analysis as provided in the merger threshold guidelines.

Heritour is a special purpose vehicle formed to acquire the target firms by Heritage Group S.A, a Swiss company, which operates in the cruising and real estate sector. A&K Group was founded in 1992. Later in 2017 Neo Dynasty, a subsidiary of the Chinese real estate and investment company Zhonghong Group, bought 90.5 percent of its stake for Sh41.2 billion.