| (1) | Within 20 business days after all parties to an intermediate merger have fulfilled all their notification requirements in the prescribed manner and form, the Competition Commission— |
| (a) | may extend the period in which it has to consider the proposed merger by a single period not exceeding 40 business days and, in that case, must issue an extension certificate to any party who notified it of the merger; or |
| (b) | after having considered the merger in terms of section 12A, must issue a certificate in the prescribed form— |
| (ii) | approving the merger subject to any conditions; or |
| (iii) | prohibiting implementation of the merger. |
| (2) | If upon the expiry of the 20 business day period provided for in subsection (1), the Competition Commission has not issued any of the certificates referred to in that subsection or, upon the expiry of an extension period contemplated in subsection (1)(a), the Commission has not issued a certificate referred to in subsection (1)(b), the merger must be regarded as having been approved, subject to section 15. |
| (3) | The Competition Commission must— |
| (a) | publish a notice of the decision in the Gazette; and |
| (b) | issue written reasons for the decision if— |
| (i) | it prohibits or conditionally approves the merger; or |
| (ii) | requested to do so by a party to the merger. |
[Section 14 substituted by section 6 of Notice No. 1354, GG 21880, dated 13 December 2000]
