WINDHOEK, March 6 (Reuters) – Namibia’s trade and
industry minister is giving Wal-Mart’s takeover of
Massmart Holdings approval, provided it does not lead
to job losses within the first two years, a Namibian newspaper
reported on Tuesday.
Wal-Mart must also allow the Namibian Food and Allied
Workers Union to keep representing Massmart’s workers during the
same period, the newspaper quoted Trade and Industry Minister
Hage Geingob as saying.
Last year, Wal-Mart took a 51 percent stake in Massmart,
which operates in 14 African countries including Namibia.
However, the Namibian Competition Commission went to court
seeking some conditions be imposed on the U.S. retail giant.
Wal-Mart launched its own court bid to have the conditions
declared unlawful.
Namibia’s supreme court ruled last year that Geingob would
have the final say on whether conditions attached to the deal
were adequate.
“I consider that the conditions strike an appropriate
balance between the potential economic benefits of the merger
and the public interest considerations,” the Namibian reported
Geingob as saying.
“I regard the case as closed. Let them come and work here so
that we can develop the country.”
Wal-Mart and Massmart are also awaiting judgements on
appeals from the South African governments, which is seeking to
attach more conditions to the group’s $2.4 billion deal.
Massmart shares are down 0.4 percent at 0819 GMT, compared
to a 0.6 percent decline in Johannesburg’s Top-40 index
(Additional reporting by Servaas van den Bosch; Reporting and
writing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura; editing by David Dolan)
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