On 3rd February the Office of Fair Trading conditionally cleared Shell’s acquisition of 253 Total branded petrol stations from Rontec Investments. The OFT found that the evidence provided by the parties on the extent of local competition by means of price pressure tests (namely Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index, GUPPI) and pass-through analysis provided it with a sufficient degree of comfort. As a result, the OFT did not require the adoption of very conservative assumptions as it often is the case in its assessment of retail mergers. The transaction is part of the divestment by Total of its UK operations. In October 2011 the OFT conditionally cleared the acquisition by Rontec Investments of Total’s UK retail fuel network of 810 petrol stations. RBB advised Shell during the OFT investigation, working alongside Allen & Overy as well as Rontec on their acquisition of Total working with Berwin Leighton Paisner.

RBB economist Patrick Smith will join a panel at Bowman Gilfillan’s Africa Competition Law Seminar – 2012, on 9 February 2012.  This seminar will bring together competition authorities and legal counsel from various African countries to share their views and experiences of competition law in their countries.  Patrick will take part in a panel to discuss “The Objectives of Competition Law for African States”.

The January 2012 edition of the CPI Antitrust News Chronicle includes an article by Bojana Ignjatovic and Derek Ridyard which discusses the economic issues raised by non-controlling minority equity stakes and merger control.  The CPI edition dealing with this topic features contributions from Paul Lugard, Enrique Gonzalez-Diaz and others, and can be found at https://www.competitionpolicyinternational.com/jan-12. 

A copy of the Ignjatovic/Ridyard paper can be downloaded here

Patrick joins RBB From Nera’s Competition Practice.  He has more than 10 years’ experience advising clients in South Africa and Europe.  Patrick has developed a strong reputation for merger and behavioural work across a number of jurisdictions.  He has extensive experience as an economic expert and has presented both written and oral evidence on behalf of clients including ABF, Thomson-Reuters, Universal, Inco, Nokia-Siemens, Anheuser Busch-Inbev, as well as government agencies in Europe and South Africa.

Patrick will split his time between our London and Johannesburg offices

In November 2011, following a Phase I investigation, the Finnish competition authority unconditionally cleared the acquisition of the Finnish ice cream producer Ingman by Unilever. The transaction reduced the number of main branded ice cream suppliers in Finland from three to two. The FCA concluded that the transaction would not give rise to concerns of collective dominance, citing factors such as the high degree of product differentiation in the market and the ability of buyers to disrupt any attempt at coordinating.

RBB Economics advised Unilever during the investigation, working alongside lawyers Castrén & Snellman.

On 12 December the UK Competition Appeals Tribunal (“CAT”) unanimously quashed the 2010 Decision of the OFT in its Competition Act investigation into vertical agreements in the tobacco industry, The OFT had alleged that agreements between the leading manufacturers and certain retailers were anti-competitive by object and imposed record fines in excess of £220m on the parties, but the CAT concluded that the OFT’s case could not be sustained. RBB acted as economic experts to the leading UK manufacturer, Imperial Tobacco, throughout the OFT investigation and the CAT appeal, working with Ashurst LLP, Mark Howard QC and Mark Brealey QC.