Mergers

09 Apr 2021

UK’s CMA Updates Guidelines on Merger Assessment

In these times of rapidly changing markets, the UK’s competition law determined the need for more clarity in existing rules, as well as an appetite to revise the ones which proved to be obsolete.   This resulted in updated guidelines on merger assessment, following a comprehensive public debate.  So, let’s check out the latest news from UK’s competition watchdog! The Competition and Markets Authority of the UK (“CMA”) highlighted its mandate to promote competition across the UK and beyond.  The CMA’s goal is to protect consumers through its merger work and help companies and their advisers assess whether competition concerns might be […]

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28 Sep 2017

Cross Border M&As to Be Explicitly Regulated – Looking Towards the Amendments to the Companies Act

The public debate on the Draft of Amendments of the Companies Act, suggested and prepared by the Ministry of Economy in April, will take place in Belgrade on 4th October 2017. As part of the drafting procedure, the Ministry tried to identify and address business sector`s concerns regarding the Companies Act and identify areas where amendments to current regulatory framework might be needed.  In order to facilitate the above-mentioned, the working group also included representatives of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, with more than 60% of the comments submitted by the companies to the Ministry, being adopted. […]

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05 Sep 2017

When sharing is not caring: exchange of information in M&A transactions and Serbian competition law

This update considers how exchange of information, as an essential part of any M&A transaction (from pre-acquisition discussions, through the due diligence procedure, and up to the closing of the transaction), may cause significant competition concerns under the Serbian Competition Act in terms of potential collusion between competitors. The prohibition on entering into restrictive agreements under the current Serbian Competition Act (CA) applies, as a general rule, to sharing of commercially sensitive information between undertakings. Relevant provisions of the CA prohibit contracts, certain contract provisions, express or tacit agreements, concerted practices, as well as decisions of undertakings associations which have […]

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04 May 2017

Collaboration Without Notification? Certain Joint Ventures out of the Scope of EC Merger Regulation, Says CJEU Advocate General

On April 27, 2017, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”),  Ms. Juliane Kokott, issued an opinion stating that not every creation of joint ventures ought to be under control of the European authorities: only formation of those joint ventures which are to be entirely autonomous, full-function entities should be subject to the official scrutiny. As per words of the opinion’s respected author, said issue, although technical in essence, holds a “practical significance” for national and European watchdogs on the one hand, and market undertakings, on the other, given that it tackles the matter of interpretation […]

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12 Apr 2017

EU Competition: Third Time’s a Charm? Not if you Ask the European Commission

On March 29, 2017, the European Commission (“Commission”) officially blocked the third attempt to implement the merger between the London Stock Exchange Group (“LSE”) and Deutsche Börse AG.  Said decision created an insurmountable obstacle to further cooperation of the two groups which was aimed at creating a European powerhouse able to compete with strong American and fast-emerging Asian financial markets. The long planned merger was to give rise to the world’s largest exchange by total income, the biggest for equities listings, and to an entity that would control more derivatives trades than any other entity in the world.1  It would […]

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