MR PRICE E1.6BN POWER FASHION ACQUISITION APPROVED

MBABANE – Clothing and homeware retail giant Mr Price Group is said to have received South Africa’s Competition Tribunal’s approval of its acquisition of the 170-store Power Fashion chain last Friday.

Mr Price getting the green light on the deal comes with conditions that it promotes local procurement. First announced in November last year, the acquisition will see the Durban-based value retailer increasing its share of the lower end of the clothing retail market. Mr Price pointed out at the time that the size of the transaction was approximately four per cent of the group’s market capitalisation, which was around E39.7 billion back then. This means the deal is valued at around E1.6 billion. “The acquisition of Power Fashion, which targets the lower end of the market and is also Durban headquartered, will see Mr Price take on the likes of Pep (owned by JSE-listed Pepkor) and independent chains such as JAM Clothing and Style (owned by Retailability – the group that took over Edgars),” reads a report from Moneyweb.

Power Fashion is the trading name of Otto Brothers Distributors Pty Ltd, which is led by Noel Otto and was founded by the Otto family some 65 years ago here in Eswatini as a general dealer that also sold clothing and footwear. Today, Power Fashion has a national footprint in South Africa and several neighbouring countries that include Eswatini. The chain’s stores are typically located in ‘high streets’ in Central Business Districts (CBDs) and in township malls, rather than in regional and super-regional shopping centres.

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