Competition Commission looks at leo take-over deal

The Namibian Competition Commission (NaCC) staged its first public participation conference looking into the merger of Powercom, trading as leo, and Telecom Namibia at the Hilton Hotel in Windhoek on Tuesday.

A full house of close to 100 interested parties, stakeholders and members of the public were in attendance.

Opening the conference the NaCC Chairperson Lucius Murorua explained that, “the commission would like to ensure that the process leading to the adjudication of the proposed merger is well informed more on how stakeholders and competitors view the merger, especially in terms of section 44(1) of the Competition Act, for the examination of its competitive effects on the relevant market”. “This being a high profile merger and having received several concerns and queries from the public, the commission thought it necessary to hold a stakeholders conference so as to give merging parties a chance to address your concerns on the proposed merger,” he said.

Murorua explained that Namibia’s telecom sector consists of five main players namely NPTH, Telecom Namibia, MTC, leo and CRAN. CRAN (the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia) is the sector regulator. He also elaborated on how Namibia Post and Telecommunications Holdings (NPTH) currently own both Telecom Namibia and Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC).

“The commission will take note of the concerns and use that as considerations for the merger determination as provided for under section 47(1) of the Competition Act,” the chairperson said. After the official opening speech all media was asked to leave the event and no further comment on what transpired thereafter has been forthcoming from the commission yet.

click to enlarge SERVICE: One of the local leo outlets in the city © Feodora Von Francois

click to enlarge Lucius Murorua