IN THE NEWS
OFT refers cash and carry merger to Competition Commission
The OFT has referred the completed acquisition by Booker Group plc of Makro Holding Limited to the Competition Commission for further investigation due to the OFT's concerns that it could reduce competition between cash and carry outlets. Click here.
Commission approves Outokumpu's acquisition of Inoxum, subject to conditions
Following a Phase II review, the European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Inoxum, the stainless steel division of ThyssenKrupp of Germany, by the Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu. The approval is conditional on the divestiture of Inoxum's stainless steel production facility in Terni, Italy. The Commission had concerns that the combination of the two largest suppliers of cold rolled steel products would have given the merged entity the power to raise prices. The conditions are intended to address these concerns. Click here.
EU
Mergers
- The European Commission has approved the joint-venture between ARM, Giesecke & Devrient and Gemalto, subject to conditions. The Commission had concerns that the transaction could have enabled ARM to exclude competitors of the joint venture from the market for trusted execution environments (TEE) for consumer electronic devices. The conditions require ARM to provide hardware information to competitors on the same conditions as to the joint venture to enable them to develop alternative TEE solutions, as well as requiring ARM not to design its IP in a way that would degrade the performance of alternative TEE solutions. Click here.
UK
Competition Commission
- The Competition Commission has cleared the completed acquisition by Epwin Holdings Limited of Building Plastics Holdings Limited, CET Glass Processors Holdings Limited and Latium Building Products Holdings Limited. This confirms the CC's provisional findings, which were published last month. The companies overlap in the supply of PVC roofline and window-trim products, used in the construction of new houses and refurbishment of existing properties. However, the Commission concluded that it is relatively simple for customers to switch between suppliers and that competing suppliers have enough spare capacity to respond if large numbers of customers want to switch away from the merged company. Click here.
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