Statement Of Preliminary Issues Released For Zenith Water / Waterlogic Merger

The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to an application from Osmosis Buyer Limited (Osmosis) to acquire all of the shares in Firewall Holdings S.À R.L (Firewall) as part of a global transaction.

Osmosis owns Zenith Heaters Limited (trading as Zenith Water) and Firewall owns Waterlogic New Zealand Limited (trading as Merquip). Both Zenith Water and Merquip supply and service drinking water solutions in New Zealand; primarily multi-function taps that dispense instant filtered, boiled, chilled and sparkling water from a single outlet.

As part of its application for clearance, Osmosis has offered an undertaking to divest the entire Merquip business.

The Statement of Preliminary Issues outlines the key competition issues that the Commission considers important in deciding whether to grant clearance to the proposed acquisition.

The Commission invites interested parties to provide comments on the likely competitive effects of the proposed acquisition. Submissions can be sent by email to registrar@comcom.govt.nz with the reference “Osmosis/Firewall” in the subject line. Any submissions should be received by close of business on 12 April 2022.

The Commission is currently scheduled to make a decision on the application by 29 April 2022. However, this date may be extended as the investigation progresses.

The Statement of Preliminary Issues and a public version of the application can be found on the Commission’s case register.

Background
We will give clearance to a proposed merger if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

Further information explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on our website.

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