Merger Control Filing Agent
The agent assesses a proposed transaction against the Competition Act merger thresholds, using the parties' asset and turnover figures, to indicate whether it is likely a small, intermediate or large merger. It then prepares first drafts of the notification information, including public interest information on employment, worker ownership and ownership by historically disadvantaged persons, for your competition lawyers to finalise.
Ideal forCompetition lawyers
The difference
From 20-30 hours per notification first draft to 4-6 hours
Your competition lawyers spend their time on analysis, strategy and engagement with the Commission rather than compiling information.
Done by hand
20-30 hours per notification first draft
With the Vanine agent
4-6 hours
Time returned to your team
80%
Indicative figures. We measure your own baseline in the first fortnight so the numbers you see are yours.
Threshold questions answered early
Whether a deal must be notified affects timelines, conditions precedent and long-stop dates. Your deal team gets an early, reasoned view from the financials, for counsel to confirm.
Public interest ready from day one
The Commission looks closely at employment effects and the spread of ownership, including worker and HDP ownership. Assembling this information early means commitments are considered before they are negotiated under pressure.
More time advising, less gathering
Merger filings need extensive information on the parties, their controllers, products and customers. Your lawyers start from a structured draft and focus on competition analysis and strategy.
Capabilities
Know early whether you must notify, and start the filing from a strong draft.
Built for competition lawyers, M&A counsel, corporate development teams and private equity deal teams preparing merger notifications to the South African Competition Commission.
Threshold assessment
Calculates the combined and target asset values and turnover from annual financial statements against the thresholds currently published under the Competition Act, and indicates the likely merger category for counsel to confirm.
Control analysis
Reviews shareholder agreements and transaction documents to identify whether the deal results in an acquisition of control as contemplated by the Competition Act, including joint and negative control indicators.
Group mapping
Maps the acquiring and target groups, their controllers and subsidiaries from CIPC records and group structures, as the notification requires.
Overlap identification
Identifies horizontal and vertical overlaps between the parties' products and services and gathers market information for the competition assessment.
Public interest information
Drafts information on employment effects, the ability of small businesses and firms owned by historically disadvantaged persons to participate, and the spread of ownership, including worker ownership.
Filing pack drafting
Prepares first drafts of the Commission's notification forms and supporting schedules, with a checklist of documents still needed from each party.
How it works
From your systems to a result you sign off
Competition lawyers confirm the threshold and control analysis, finalise the filing and submit the notification to the Competition Commission.
Connect the places your transaction documents already live.
Transaction documents, annual financial statements, group structures, employee data and CIPC records from the deal folder or data room. Already use something else? We connect that too.
- OpenAI Frontier
- Your own AI platform or models
- Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Excel)
- Copilot Studio
- iManage and NetDocuments
- CIPC company and beneficial ownership records, through your data provider
- LexisNexis SA or Juta, through your subscription
Runs on request in Teams or OpenAI Frontier once a transaction is in preparation, using the models your organisation approves.
A threshold and control memo, draft notification information and a public interest schedule in Word and Excel, saved to the matter file.
Step by step
- 01
The deal team opens a transaction and shares the key documents.
- 02
The agent calculates thresholds and assesses control.
- 03
It maps both groups and identifies overlaps.
- 04
It drafts the notification information and public interest schedule.
- 05
Competition lawyers review, complete and approve the filing.
- 06
Counsel submits the notification to the Competition Commission.
Deployment
Runs inside the tools your team already uses
The same agent and the same cited output, delivered three ways: through the AI assistant you have rolled out, on a model you host yourself, or inside your own software.
In the frontier assistant you already pay for
We publish the agent as an MCP server. Add it as a connector and your team calls it from the chat they use every day, with no new tool to learn.
"Is this deal notifiable?"
- deal
- Project Marula
- authority
- Competition Commission
On a model you host yourself
Run the agent on open-weight models in your data centre or private cloud. Your transaction documents never leave your network, which keeps POPIA and data residency straightforward.
- Llama
- Mistral
- Ollama
- or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint
Inside your own software
Trigger a run from your own workflows, and push the finished output into your ERP, GRC or reporting systems. We build the integration with your team.
- REST API
- Webhooks
- Batch jobs
- Embeddable review panel
Governed the same way, every route
Whichever way your team reaches the agent, identity, permissions and audit stay with your existing controls.
- Single sign-on through Entra ID, Okta or Google Workspace
- Reads only the documents each user is already allowed to open
- Every tool call written to an audit log you can export
How we deliver it
One agent, three ways to hold it
Start where your team already works, then take it as far into your systems as the value justifies.
DATA SECURITY & PRIVACY
Your transaction documents stay yours.
The agent runs inside your tenancy, reads only what each task needs, and never trains on your transaction documents. Every step is logged so your auditors can see exactly what it touched.
Built for regulated work.
+YOUR TRANSACTION DOCUMENTS NEVER LEAVE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
More agents
More agents we build for South African enterprises
Each one is built on the same foundation: your documents, your rules, and your people signing off.
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