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Pupkewitz investment legacy continues with Namibia Plastics acquisition

Pupkewitz investment legacy continues with Namibia Plastics acquisition

An arm of the Pupkewitz Family, the Barry Family, has become the controlling shareholder of local manufacturing company, Namibia Plastics, through the family’s investment entity, Daikon Investments.

Namibia Plastics announced this week that, following Competition Commission approval in September last year, the entire shareholding of the company’s founder and Chief Executive, Johan Struwig, has been obtained by Daikon Investments, effective 30 January 2023. Daikon now controls Namibia Plastics with 55.2% of the shares. Struwig will continue as Chief Executive.

The company is a major supplier to Namibia Breweries Ltd, both importing and manufacturing soft plastics for the packaging of wet and dry food products. It is certified by both the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a manufacturing facility of flexible plastic packaging for food for human consumption.

The Daikon directors are Meryl and Andrea Barry, widow and daughter of the late Phil Barry, the Managing Director of the Pupkewitz Group at the time of his untimely death in a car accident. Meryl is the daughter of the late Harold Pupkewitz. The third director is Brian Rubinstein who has been associated with the Pupkewitz Group for 26 years.

The remaining shareholder with 44.8% is Spitz Capital, an approved Unlisted Investment Vehicle with the Government Institutions Pension Fund as main investor. The Spitz Capital fund is managed by Koenigstein Capital, the investment manager founded by Albie Basson some 14 years ago. The fund’s Chief Investment Officer, Albert Basson, the son of Albie, said “We welcome Daikon as a shareholder. It is very good for the company to have the Pupkewitz Family as partner.”

Andrea Barry also welcomed the acquisition, saying: “We are excited to finalise this transaction which is a reflection of our desire to strengthen the industrial base of the country through export-oriented growth. Together with our co-shareholder, Spitz Capital, we have injected further capital of N$80 million ahead of the closure of the deal to double production capacity and enable the business to increase its presence across the region, moving from a 60% export ratio to 80% over the coming years.”

The company has already doubled its output with the commissioning of a second extrusion line in November last year. On their enhanced future prospects, Struwig said “For the past eight years, our purpose and corporate mission has been to become the market leader everywhere we serve. This acquisition brings us one step closer to achieving this goal as it opens the doors to several opportunities in both the domestic and international arena. In addition to the second production line, further capex expansions have been approved by the shareholders, which include the establishment of an in-house recycling plant to recycle post-production waste.”

Another capex investment comprises a large solar installation to mitigate possible future business interruption as a result of load shedding by Eskom in South Africa.

On his corporate social responsibility, Struwig indicated that just over 10% of the share sale proceeds will be allocated to a fund owned by the company’s employees

Daikon Director, Andrea Barry (left) and Namibia Plastics Chief Executive, Johan Struwig, sign the contract for the acquisition of Struwig’s shareholding by Daikon Investments.

The team that made the transaction happen. Standing, from the left, Spitz Capital CIO, Albert Basson; Sage Secretarial, Bronwen Cloete; Namibia Plastics FD, Zenita Malan; ENS Associates, Stefanie Busch and Cronje Inc. attorney, Heinrich Jansen van Vuuren. Seated are Namibia Plastics Chief Executive, Johan Struwig (left) and Daikon Director Meryl Barry.


 

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