Highlights: China’s two governmental regulators for anti-monopoly conducts in China announced that they will increase the transparency of their enforcement actions under the Anti-Monopoly Laws. One head of SAIC discussed its future goals: (1) to investigate those typical antitrust cases having serious impact on market competition; (2) to investigate monopoly conducts of public utility enterprises … Continued
Highlights: The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) conditionally approved Seagate’s acquisition of Samsung’s hard disk drive business, making it the 4th conditional approval of this year and the 10th conditional approval by MOFCOM since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law went into effect. While MOFCOM still relies heavily on market share and market structure, it also takes in … Continued
Highlights: On November 22, 2011 the State Duma of theRussian Federationpassed a new package of amendments to the antitrust laws in the third reading. The proposed “Third Antitrust Package”, which still has to be approved by the Council of Federation and then signed by the President, changes antitrust regulation significantly. In expectation of the innovations, … Continued
Highlights: The U.S. Steel settlement allows the Canadian government to avoid protracted litigation while underscoring its intended message, namely that foreign investors must take their Investment Canada Act undertakings seriously. It also comes against the backdrop of recent statements by the Prime Minister and Minister of Industry Paradis that while the Canadian government continues to … Continued
Highlights: The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has abolished the prior consultation procedures and revised the Guidelines to the Application of the Antimonopoly Act Concerning Revision of Business Combination in order to enhance predictability. Under the New Policies, JFTC must implement consultation upon receipt of notification, and the business combination reviews are unified in the … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: MOFCOM conditionally cleared the acquisition of Savio Macchine Tessili S.p.A ofItaly by Alpha Private Equity Fund V, a European private equity firm, subject to certain disposition conditions. This is the first conditional decision relating to a private equity investor that grants conditional approval. Historically, PE firms have believed that their transactions were very … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: The Brazilian House of Representatives has approved a bill that substantially changes merger review procedures and antitrust investigations in Brazil. The new law is subject to Presidential approval and will likely become effective in mid-2012. The new law creates a pre-merger review system (clearance will be a condition precedent to closing) and changes … Continued
Executive summary The increase in M&A activity inPolandhas been accompanied by growing emphasis on the evaluation of “concentrations” under Polish competition law. In recent years, increasing numbers of concentrations have been blocked or given only conditional clearance. In light of the Polish “Competition policy for 2011–2013”, a policy specifying the plans of the Polish competition … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: U.S.M&A volume over the last 12 months was just shy of US$1 trillion, including almost $200 billion of cross-border acquisitions in theU.S.by non-U.S. investors or acquirors. Despite some well-publicized examples of thwarted deals and fears of growing protectionism, theU.S.deal markets remain open to non-U.S. acquirors and investors. The Obama Administration’s nascent plan to … Continued
Executive Summary: The European Commission recently issued clearance under the merger control rules for the proposed joint venture between DSM and Sinochem. The Commission considered the question of whether all Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (so called “SOEs”) should be considered a single economic entity, but left the question open for future determination after concluding that even … Continued
