Biography: Competition

Derek Lotter has been a partner with Bowman Gilfillan since 2001, and holds BCom and LLB degrees, and a Masters in Business Leadership. Derek has been involved in a large number of prominent mergers and behavioural competition matters before the competition authorities in South Africa, and has advised on all aspects of South African competition law. Derek also advises on the competition law implications of activities in a number of other African countries. Derek also practises as a general commercial lawyer in the area of pharmaceutical law and regulation and in the area of consumer law. Recent representative (behavioural) matters include advising Sasol Nitro with respect to the ongoing proceedings in the fertiliser sector; Murray and Roberts Steel with respect to the Commission's separate corporate leniency processes with respect to RSC Ekusasa (mining products); BRC (mesh reinforcing) and RSC (reinforcing steel) and in relation to complaint referral proceedings in these cases; Rocla with respect to the Commission's separate corporate leniency processes with respect to concrete products and in relation to complaint referral proceedings in this case; Murray and Roberts Construction and its subsidiary Concor with respect to the Commission's investigation into the construction sector.

Recent representative merger matters include Du Pont (Pioneer Hi-Bred)/Pannar, Softline/Netcash, Novartis/Alcon, Bucyrus/Terex, GE/Dresser, Intel/McAfee, Barclays/Standard Chartered (custody services), Toyota Tsusho/Subaru, Alstom & Schneider/Areva, BA/Iberia, UTC/GE Security, Achilles Netherlands/Brit Insurance, UPM-Kymmene/Myllykoski, SAP/Sybase, Nokia Siemens/Motorola, Rio Tinto/Riverdale, Sasol/Profert, Virgin/Virgin Mobile, Adcock Ingram/Cipla Medpro SA, Kraft/Cadbury, Pfizer/Wyeth, Daiichi Sankyo/Ranbaxy, Panasonic/Sanyo, Avaya/Nortel, GE Security/UTC, Felda/Felda Bridge, Sara Lee (body care)/Unilever, Grinrod/Absa, Eurasian Mining/Central African Mining and Exploration, and General Motors/Opel & Delphi.

Derek has done detailed competition review and compliance audits on behalf of a number of listed and other South African corporations, including with respect to the firms' international operations (especially with activities in sub-Saharan Africa).

Derek has extensive experience in a variety of sectors, allowing him to advise on the competition law implications of conduct in a number of affected areas of businesses.