Engling, Stritter & Partners

Managing Partners: Mark Kutzner
Number of partners: 8
Number of lawyers: 15
Languages: Afrikaans, English, German

Firm Overview:
Engling, Stritter & Partners can trace its roots back as far as the late 1920s gaining extensive experience across a range of industries. The firm is a leading Namibian corporate and commercial law firm serving government, multinationals, financial institutions and entrepreneurs. With a formidable track record in mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, mining conveyancing, commercial litigation and dispute resolution, Engling, Stritter & Partners is distinguished by the people, clients and work that the firm attracts and retains. 

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance:
■ As local counsel, advised CGNPC Uranium Resources Co., Ltd. and its subsidiary Swakop Uranium (Pty) Ltd in respect of the provision of financing for the construction, development and operation of the Husab Uranium Project. Once in full production, Husab is said to be the secondlargest uranium mine in the world (2013)
■ Advised the Development Bank of Namibia Limited in respect of funding from Standard Bank Namibia Ltd and African Development Bank and the provision of loan facilities to the Government of Namibia, acting through the National Energy Fund, under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance in relation to the construction of a petroleum products storage facility at Walvis Bay, Namibia

Corporate/M&A:
■ Representing the Government Institutions Pension Fund (‘GIPF’), the largest institutional investor in Namibia, in the transaction acquiring a 25% interest in the issued ordinary shares of Capricorn Investment Group Limited, the listed holding company of the commercial bank, Bank Windhoek Limited, at a negotiated total consideration in excess of N$2 billion (2017)
■ Acting for Old Mutual with regard to its ‘Managed Separation,’ as local counsel with regard to an admission by way of introduction of issued ordinary shares on the main board of the JSE, as a primary listing, and to the admission of ordinary shares to the UK Official List and to trading on the LSE’s main market for listed securities as a standard listing, and as secondary listings, the admission of the issued ordinary shares on, among other the Namibian Stock Exchange (2018)
■ Representing Namibia Breweries Ltd (NBL) concerning the restructure of joint venture operations in South Africa and Namibia for Heineken N.V., Diageo plc and The Ohlthaver & List (‘O&L’) Group of Companies, the majority shareholder of NBL

Corporate Finance/Capital Markets:
■ Acting for Alpha Namibia Industries Renewable Power Limited (ANIREP) in its listing on the NSX as a Capital Pool Company, allowing for a private placement by way of an offer for subscription to Invited Investors for shares in ANIREP, and the subsequent listing of all the shares of ANIREP on the main board of the NSX (2018)
■ Acting for the Development Bank of Namibia Limited with regard to its NAD2,500,000,000 Domestic MediumTerm Note Programme (2017).
■ Advising the International Finance Corporation in connection with the establishment of a medium term note programme under the IFC’s umbrella Pan-African Domestic Medium-Term Note Programme to allow IFC to issue debt securities in Namibia (2015)

Antitrust & Competition:
■ Representing Santam Namibia Limited in respect of a restrictive business practices investigation by the Namibian Competition Commission relating to the mark-ups that panel beaters charged in respect of parts used in the repair of motor vehicles and the maximum rates that panel beaters charged for labour in respect of motor vehicle repairs (2018-2019)
■ Assisted Puma Namibia (Pty) Ltd during first ever search and seizure (dawn-raid) executed by the Namibian Competition Commission and in the ongoing investigation conducted by Namibian Competition Commission regarding unfair pricing (2016)
■ Attending to various local merger notifications, involving: Ohlthaver & List Group and Hartlief (acquisition of meat processing facility) (2019); Frans Indongo Group, and Wispeco (acquisition of aluminium and steel manufacturing and processing plant) (2019); Pointbreak and FNB Namibia (acquisition of various financial institutions) (2017); Samba/ Helios and Namibia Post and Telecom Holdings pertaining to the 34% foreign owned stake in MTC, Namibia’s largest mobile telecommunications network (2017); the sales and acquisitions of various motor vehicle dealerships (i.e. Ford, Mazda, LandRover and Nissan dealerships by Bidvest Namibia in 2015 and 2018, Volkswagen and BMW dealerships by Pupkewitz in 2016 and 2017; Toyota dealerships by the Frans Indongo Group of companies in 2015 and 2017)

Mining, Resources Oil & Gas:
■ Glencore International plc’s acquisition of a controlling interest in the Rosh Pinah Zinc Corporation formerly controlled by Exxaro Resources Limited, and operating a Zinc mine in Southern Namibia, and later sale of its interest to Trevali Mining Corporation
■ Acting for BW Kudu Ltd in relation to the provision of legal advisory and transaction services concerning the Kudu gas field and power project in Namibia. BW Kudu, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based BW Offshore, who has formally taken over as the upstream operator on the relevant licence and who, together with the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia hold an interest in the Kudu petroleum production license
■ Acting as local counsel for QKR Corporation Limited in the acquisition of the total share capital in AngloGold Ashanti Namibia (Proprietary) Limited, who owns the Navachab Gold Mine

Infrastructure, Energy & Projects:
■ Development, including the financing of the 37MW Mariental Solar PV power project, acting for the project company Alten Solar Power (Hardap) (Proprietary) Limited, who includes Namibia’s national power utility company NamPower as a shareholder
■ Acting for the Global Climate Partnership Fund S.A., SICAV-SIF and Rand Merchant Bank, a division of First National Bank of Namibia Limited concerning financing transactions with regard to participants in the interim Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) Programme in developing two 5MW solar PV projects
■ Advising a development, engineering and construction, and production company in renewable energy in relation to a 12MW solar PV power plant and a 0.5MW/0.5MWh energy storage faclity to be built at the Husab Uranium Mine, Namibia (2018)
Intellectual Property (IP):
■ Representing Southern Sun Africa and Southern Sun Hotel Interests (Proprietary) Limited (collectively, Southern Sun) in the High Court of Namibia against Sun Square Hotel (Proprietary) Limited (respondent), concerning the name and trade logo of ‘SUN SQUARE’
■ Advised Namibian Network Information Center (Pty) Ltd (‘NA-NiC’) in registration of Namibia’s local domain .NA®

Litigation & Arbitration:
■ Acted for Fantasy Enterprises CC t/a Hustler The Shop against the Minister of Home Affairs in the matter where it was held that the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed the Constitution should be construed purposefully
■ Acted for Dr E Lisse against the Minister of Health and Social Services in a matter where it was held that the doctrine of ‘legitimate expectation’ in administrative law may entitle a person whose claim falls short of a legal right to some kind of a hearing if the interest at stake rises to the level of a ‘legitimate expectation’
■ Acting for Old Mutual Namibia Life Assurance Company Namibia Ltd in a legal action in which the insurance industry challenges the constitutionality of Sections 39(1)-(3) of the Namibia National Reinsurance Corporation Act 22 of 1998, implementing the compulsory per policy cessions to NamibRE, and to review the implementation of the Notices of a compulsory per policy cession of 12.5% of all policies.

Property & Real Estate:
■ Dealing with property matters relating to the Wernhil Park – Shopping Mall in Windhoek, including the Phase 4-Extension and the registration of various air right-/lease agreements with the local authority and bonds for project financing
■ Advising the Ohlthaver & List Group of Companies, the largest private Namibian-owned entity, and in particular its subsidiary, Wernhil Park (Pty) Ltd, in respect of putting in place a security special purpose vehicle-indemnity structure developed to take and hold and release security in multi lender transactions