Werksmans acted for a BEE consortium acquiring the Nampak Limited's cross-border Liquid Cartons business, which operates in South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Zambia, Malawi and Burkina Faso. The consortium comprises RMB Corvest and Dlondlobala Capital (a majority black women-owned private equity fund).

The transaction and the need for timeous closing was crucial to Nampak's turnaround and injection of liquidity, and involved the disposal of a business division that manufactured paper packaging for a wide range of everyday liquid and dry food products, ranging from dairy (milk, yoghurt and mageu) to fruit juices, water, wine, cereals, pet foods and others.

In South Africa, the transaction raised the question of how the competition authorities should approach empowerment ownership as a public interest consideration in terms of the Competition Act when differences arise with how that concept is assessed in terms of the B-BBEE legislation and codes. These matters were of sufficient complexity that they led to consultation between the B-BBEE Commission and the Competition Commission, ultimately leading to the Competition Tribunal ruling that B-BBEE principles can lead to different results. The Competition Tribunal ultimately accepted the merging parties' legal counsel's submissions as to the correct approach under the Competition Act.

Werksmans team comprised of Roelof Bonnet – Director, Etta Chang – Director,  Cyprian Mthembu – Director,  Paul Cleland – Director,  Seroshan Padayachy – Director,  Janine Hollesen – Director,  Bradley Workman-Davies – Director Jacques van Wyk – Director, Dannielle Fiff – Senior Associate and Kwanele Diniso – Associate.