By John Pecman, Huy A. Do, Antonio Di Domenico, Grant McGlaughlin and Gesta Abols on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewIn recent years, competition/antitrust enforcers around the world, including Canada, have taken a marked interest in private equity deals. As part of a broader global trend of tougher merger enforcement, private equity firms that have taken ownership positions (controlling or minority) in portfolio companies that are competitors have been subject to heightened scrutiny. The litigation and… Continue Reading
By Chris Margison on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewPre-merger exchanges of information can create competition risk. Companies considering mergers or acquisitions legitimately need access to detailed information about the other party’s business in order to negotiate the deal, engage in due diligence and implement the transaction. While non-competitively sensitive can (subject to any commercial concerns) be freely exchanged, care needs to be exercised… Continue Reading
By Chris Margison on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewAs mentioned in our prior blog post titled Commissioner Points to More Active Enforcement, Greater Transparency and Refined Approach to Efficiencies Defence, the Commissioner of Competition announced during his keynote speech at the Canadian Bar Association’s Competition Law Spring Conference on May 7, 2019 that the Competition Bureau intended to release for public comment a… Continue Reading
By Anthony F. Baldanza on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewOn June 17, 2019 the Competition Bureau announced that it is challenging Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Aucerna, a company that offers valuation and reporting software to Canadian oil and gas producers. The fact that the Competition Bureau is challenging the transaction after it has been completed suggests that the transaction was not subject to pre-merger… Continue Reading
By Chris Margison and Jenna L. Ward on Posted in Competition Litigation,Merger Notification & ReviewOver the past week, the Commissioner of Competition has made a number of comments relevant to big tech companies and the digital economy. These comments were made on a panel at the Data Forum Discussing Competition Policy in the Digital Era in Ottawa on May 30th, at a conference hosted by the Organisation for Economic… Continue Reading
By Douglas C. New and Sabrina Jackson-Nazareth on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewIn a recent speech given at the Canadian Bar Association’s Competition Law Spring Conference, Commissioner of Competition, Matthew Boswell, announced the Bureau’s decision to place more focus on identifying non-notifiable mergers which could potentially raise competition law concerns. While the Competition Act (“the Act”) requires pre-merger notification of certain proposed mergers when prescribed monetary thresholds… Continue Reading
By Chris Margison on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewDuring his keynote speech at the Canadian Bar Association’s Competition Law Spring Conference on May 7, 2019, the Commissioner of Competition discussed several important topics, including more active enforcement, a refined approach to the efficiencies defence and greater transparency with merging parties. Each of these developments has significant implications for the merger review process, particularly… Continue Reading
By Johan Coetzee on Posted in Competition Litigation,Merger Notification & ReviewThe South African Competition Commission has since the beginning of 2017 prohibited eleven intermediate mergers and has recommended that four large mergers be prohibited. This number is substantially higher than 2016, when the Commission prohibited three intermediate mergers and recommended that one large merger be prohibited. For the period end of September to October 2017,… Continue Reading
By Stephen Langbridge on Posted in Competition Compliance Programs,Merger Notification & ReviewMerger clearance in South Africa is not easy, nor quick. That may be a take-away from observing the recent clearance by the South African authorities of the DowDuPont global merger of equals covering markets for agricultural products, material sciences and chemicals as well as specialized health and electrical products. The merger was cleared some 15… Continue Reading
By Huy A. Do and Grant LoPatriello on Posted in Competition Litigation,Merger Notification & ReviewOn September 29, 2016, the Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) released a revised consent agreement template for merger remedy negotiations. The release of the Bureau’s updated template is timely, as the number of consent agreements registered with the Competition Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) have risen significantly since the last template was published in 2007. This year alone,… Continue Reading
By Douglas C. New and Huy A. Do on Posted in Competition Litigation,Merger Notification & Review,Pricing and DistributionDespite the fact that Canada’s Competition Bureau had concluded that the proposed acquisition of Canexus Corporation by Superior Plus Corp. would likely result in a substantial lessening of competition for the supply of various industrial chemical products in Canada, the Bureau issued a “no action” letter clearing the transaction under the Competition Act because of… Continue Reading
By Devon Jenkins on Posted in Competition Compliance Programs,Merger Notification & ReviewThe Competition Commission of South Africa (“Commission”) has extended the deadline for the submission of comments on the recently published draft Guidelines on the assessment of public interest provisions in merger regulation under the Competition Act 89 of 1998 (“the Act”). Public interest clauses in competition law have been the cause of some controversy. Some… Continue Reading
By Huy A. Do, Anthony F. Baldanza and Douglas C. New on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewIncreases to the merger notification thresholds under the Competition Act and the investment review threshold under the Investment Canada Act have been announced. Competition Act As published in Part I of the Canada Gazette on February 7, 2015, the pre-merger notification threshold relating to transaction-size for 2015 has increased to $86 million from the 2014 threshold of… Continue Reading
By Stephen Langbridge and Devon Jenkins on Posted in Competition Compliance Programs,Merger Notification & ReviewThe Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission (CCC) is a regional regulator mandated with enhancing regional economic integration among the 19 Member States by promoting fair competition and securing consumer protection. The CCC published the long awaited Merger Assessment Guidelines on Friday, 31 October 2014. The purpose of the Guidelines is… Continue Reading
By Douglas C. New on Posted in Competition Compliance Programs,Merger Notification & ReviewIndustry Minister James Moore recently announced that he had given approval under the Investment Canada Act to the acquisition of majority control of WIND Mobile, a Canadian wireless telecommunications company, from WIND Mobile’s majority shareholder VimpelCom Ltd., a Russian-Dutch company, by AAL Acquisitions Corporation. AAL Acquisitions is an investment consortium reportedly including WIND Mobile founder… Continue Reading
By Leslie J. Milton on Posted in Merger Notification & ReviewOn October 1, 2014, the Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) announced that Bell Aliant Regional Communications Inc. (“Bell Aliant”) had addressed the Bureau’s vertical foreclosure concerns regarding its proposed acquisition of O.N. Tel Inc. (“Ontera”). It did so by granting to Bragg Communications Inc. (“Eastlink”) a 20-year indefeasible right of use (IRU) of between two and… Continue Reading
By Stephen Langbridge on Posted in Competition Litigation,Merger Notification & ReviewCase Note: Tiger Equity (Pty) Ltd and Murray & Roberts (Pty) Ltd / Competition Commission Case 01974 The South African Competition Tribunal has made a very useful decision regarding the practical approach in determining whether a merger arises by way of a number of firms acquiring what would be joint control over a target firm.… Continue Reading
By Douglas C. New on Posted in Competition Compliance Programs,Foreign Investment,Merger Notification & ReviewSterigenics International Inc., a sterilization services company owned by US-based private equity firm GTCR LLC, recently announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nordion Inc. which is a major Canadian health science company with global operations that provide sterilization technologies and medical isotopes products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and… Continue Reading
