SA’s biggest furniture group, Lewis, has approached the Constitutional Court as it seeks to block Shoprite’s R3.2bn sale of its furniture business to Pepkor, reports News24.

Lewis, which owns brands such as Beares, UFO and Bedzone, told an interim results presentation on Thursday that if the deal went ahead, it would capture more than 50% of the country’s furniture segment for Pepkor, which owns furniture brands such as Russells, Sleepmaster, Bradlows, and Rochester.

This, it said, would be detrimental to customers and independent players in the market.

The group’s bid in the Constitutional Court follows it losing the right to appeal the merger at the Competition Appeal Court last month. Lewis CEO Johan Enslin told the investor presentation that the group had asked for leave to appeal because it believed the matter was of 'real importance' to the whole industry.

'And subsequently, the Constitutional Court has now directed Lewis and the merger parties to actually draft heads (of argument) and to actually speak to the merits that basically surround Lewis’s intention to partake in this process.'

Enslin was responding to a question from Titanium Capital’s Charles Boles, who asked how the deal between Shoprite and Pepkor would affect Lewis.

He said that 'at this point in time,' Lewis remained 'hopeful that we’ll get a favourable response from the Constitutional Court'.

Detailing Lewis’s response to the merger, Enslin said the Lewis Group had actually participated in the Competition Commission proceedings on the transaction 'right from the word go'.

However, Enslin said the Competition Commission still decided to make a recommendation to the Competition Tribunal to approve the merger.

Shoprite declined to comment. Pepkor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Full News24 report