Description of Activities

The Commission resolved to approve without conditions the acquisition by Catapult of the entire business and assets of Union Tiles (as a going concern), including the shares and claims in its subsidiaries, as well as the entire shareholding interest in and claims against the property holding company, being Phoenix Machines. 

 The primary acquiring undertaking, Catapult is an investment company that owns established building material manufacturing and distribution businesses in South Africa. In Namibia, the acquiring group, Lonsa Group Ltd through its subsidiaries including Swartland Investment Proprietary Limited which it acquired in July 2022 conducts business activities relating to the sale of building materials.

The primary target undertakings, Union Tiles is a multi-faceted wall and floor tile corporation offering a wide range of products and services for home and commercial projects. It distributes a wide range of floor and wall tiles in either Ceramic, Porcelain, and Natural Stone, or Terrazzo. In Namibia, Union Tiles primarily retail and wholesale floor and wall tiles through its Windhoek and Swakopmund outlets. Phoenix Machine is a property holding company, and it has no operations in Namibia.

 The Secretariat defined the relevant product markets as the broader market for the supply of building materials, hardware, and related products; and the submarkets for the supply of wall and floor tiles and sanitary ware; the supply of cornices; the supply of building insulation and technical insulation products; the supply of fibre cement products; and the supply of wood, aluminium, and doors, windows, and garage doors

Merger Determination

The Commission found the proposed transaction unlikely to result in the prevention or substantial lessening of competition, does not result in any undertaking acquiring or strengthening a dominant position in the market, and does not raise any public interest concerns.

However, as stated under section 50 of the Act, this approval does not relieve parties from complying with any other mandatory statutory approvals that any of the parties to this merger must comply with under Namibian Laws.