The COMESA Competition Commission has launched a merger investigation into Italian packaging group Guala Closures S.P.A’s proposed acquisition of Metal Crowns Limited in Kenya.
Under the deal, Guala Closures intends to acquire the entire issued share capital of Metal Crowns Kenya, a manufacturer of plastic caps and metal crowns largely supplied to the beverage industry. The transaction will be carried out through the purchase of shares in Mantiax Investments Limited, which holds a 99.9999 per cent stake in the Kenyan firm.
Guala Closures, a joint-stock company based in Italy, is a global producer of premium closures for wine, spirits and bottled mineral water. The group already has operations across several African markets, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Madagascar and Zimbabwe.
Metal Crowns Kenya runs local manufacturing facilities for both plastic closures and metal crowns and serves customers across multiple COMESA countries. Its metal crown products are sold in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, while its plastic closures are distributed in the DRC, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
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According to the parties’ submission, overlaps between Guala Closures and Metal Crowns are limited geographically, occurring only in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and only in relation to the sale and distribution of metal crowns.
The probe underscores COMESA’s growing involvement in supervising cross-border mergers, particularly in manufacturing and consumer-oriented industries where regional supply chains and market concentration can carry implications beyond individual national markets.
