Biography: Competition

Chris Charter has 10 years' experience in competition law. Although he now specialises in competition law, he also has experience in general regulatory matters, including those pertaining to telecommunications, medicines and consumer law. He also has a strong background in corporate and commercial law, which greatly assists clients in marrying competition law with commercial reality.

His practice covers all aspects of competition law, from merger control to prohibited practices. On the prohibited practices side, Chris has experience in bringing and defending complaints, writing opinions, corporate leniency and compliance work. He has also advised in mergers involving major South African listed companies and has advised a number of global companies in obtaining South African regulatory clearance in respect of multinational transactions.

His competition work spans a variety of industries, including telecommunications, construction, banking, mining, airlines, health care, grocery wholesale and retail, petroleum, fast moving consumer goods and financial services.

Chris has been involved in a number of noteworthy matters including: successfully acting for Massmart Holdings Ltd in relation to a number of horizontal mergers, including the acquisition of Finro Cash & Carry, which was opposed by the Commission; advising Harmony Gold Mining Company in its hostile takeover bid for Gold Fields Limited; successfully obtaining clearance for the South African leg of Lufthansa's global acquisition of Swiss International Airlines; the merger of Verizon Communications and MCI; obtaining South African clearance for the global merger of Danaher Corp and Tektronix; successfully notifying African Bank's acquisition of credit furniture retailer Ellerines; successfully defending Independent News and Media against allegations of abuse of dominance; acting for Business Connexion Group Limited in regard to merger proceedings with Telkom Limited; obtaining South African clearance for the merger of Incitec Pivot and Dyno Nobel; advising Taylor Nelson Sofres in regard to the global hostile takeover by the WPP Group; assisting Lonmin plc in its acquisition of Afriore Limited and in regard to the proposed hostile takeover by Xstrata.

Chris is one of two South African contributors to Global Competition Litigation Review and has published a number of articles locally and internationally. He has presented papers and lectured at conferences, and has also appeared on radio and television discussions on competition and regulatory issues. Chris is an appointed member of the competition law committee of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces.

Chris is recognised in international directories including PLC Which Lawyer? 2009 and the IFLR1000 Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms 2010, where Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr's competition practice is also recognised for the strength, depth and experience of its solid team. The firm's accolades include being named Best Competition and Antitrust Team at the World Finance 2010 Legal Awards.