Sasol Nitro yesterday afternoon making public the extent of the fine that the company received from the competitions authorities

Sasol Nitro yesterday afternoon making public the extent of the fine that the company received from the competitions authorities, and ending a dirty saga that has plagued the company for a number of years. Even though this means that the company will restructure their fertiliser business, the company still believes that they did not engage in any practices that led to the enquiry. Which is interesting in itself. Nevertheless the company has been proactive and have approached the competitions authorities with the following proposals:


"1. Divesting its regional blending capacity in Bellville, Durban, Kimberley, Potchefstroom and Endicott whilst retaining its full production activities in Secunda.


2. Altering Sasol Nitro's fertiliser sales approach to a Secunda ex-works model. All fertiliser retail agent contracts will be phased out and a new fertiliser sales operating model formulated.


3. Pricing all ammonium nitrate based fertilisers on an ex-Secunda basis.


4. Phasing out ammonia imports on behalf of customers in South Africa."



I guess most important for shareholders from the release is that "the agreement will be a full and final settlement of the alleged contraventions of excessive pricing and exclusionary practices, which are the subject of the Nutri-Flo and Profert referrals, but requires confirmation by the Tribunal. As the Commission is of the view that the settlement will address their competition concerns, the Commission has not sought an administrative penalty."




Other than the 250 million Rands that they have settled on already, as per the competitions authorities release earlier in the day: "The Competition Commission reached a settlement agreement with Sasol Chemical Industries Limited ("SCI") on the 25th of June 2010, finalising the abuse aspect of the fertiliser case. This follows the settlement reached with SASOL on the collusion part of the case in which SASOL was fined R250 million." In the now infamous words of a former chief of police, this is now "finish and klaar". In this case, not his case.