Saudi Merger Control Regulator Issues First Conditional Approval

On 7 June 2023, the Saudi Arabian General Authority for Competition (GAC) granted for the first time a conditional clearance. The decision was issued in respect to the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in Direct Financial Network Co. (DirectFN) by Saudi Tadawul Group Holding Company through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Tadawul Advanced Solutions Co. (Wamid). A market investigation conducted by GAC raised concerns that the transaction could have negative implications on the market for digital solutions for the financial sector. To procure clearance of the acquisition the parties proposed several remedies to GAC. GAC took these under consideration and cleared the acquisition conditionally.