The combination between AON and Willis Tower Watson hangs in the balance as antitrust concerns over large multi-national customers may be difficult to address with divestitures. With the U.S., EU, Australia and New Zealand raising similar concerns, the key for the approval may lie on a narrow market definition. The companies may need to beef up the divestment plan to appease regulators.
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The combination of AerCap and GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) will create an aircraft leasing worldwide leader that would likely obtain all the necessary antitrust approvals despite the size of the companies. The merger isn’t likely to raise significant antitrust concerns, but even if it does, remedies may appease regulators. In this article we tell you why this market leader won’t raise antitrust concerns.
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The companies may delay until September the formal filing of the deal in Europe. While this may look like an unnecessary delay, this extra time could allow EU regulators to review the deal and grant an approval without opening an in-depth merger review, in our view. The $40 billion deal will combine Nvidia’s graphic and data center chips with Arm’s IP licensing portfolio to create a microchip company with enhanced AI and IoT capabilities. The deal is expected to raise antitrust concerns in US, Europe and China.
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A potential combination between Unicredit and Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) won’t likely undergo significant antitrust scrutiny. Yet, certain actions by the Italian government may be considered State aid and they may complicate any deal. In this article we explain what these issues are and how likely is that the deal gets through.
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Peugeot’s proposed remedy to deepen its current agreement with Toyota to produce more cars for the Japanese automaker may help to appease EU regulators and bring an approval closer. Yet, in order to avoid divestitures, the automakers may have to beef up the remedy plan.
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Worldline nears closing a deal to acquire rival Ingenico as the remedies submitted during a phase I merger investigation are likely to be accepted by EU regulators. Yet, this deal, together with the recent Mastercard-Nets, suggest that the days when a FinTech deal was barely scrutinized by regulators and quickly approved may be gone. More consolidation in the market is expected as companies seek to offer omnichannel payment solutions but from now on, antitrust approvals may cost dearly.
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LSE is accepting bids for Borsa Italiana or for its bond trading platform, MTS, in an attempt to ease the EU merger review. While this divestiture is likely to bring the approval closer, it may still fall short to allay additional concerns on the market for derivatives and access to financial data.
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Visa’s $5 billion acquisition of Plaid was unconditionally cleared by the U.K.’s CMA on August 24. It contrasts with the EU conditional approval obtained by Mastercard in its acquisition of Nets on August 17. The analysis conducted by the U.K. regulator left a door wide open for companies like American Express, PayPal and TrueLayer to continue the consolidation in the customer-to-business (C2B) payment sector.
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(Premium)- After a failed JV with Tata, Thyssenkrupp is now trying to sell its elevator unit to Kone. Yet, this deal would likely face significant antitrust scrutiny in Europe and an approval may come at a very high price for both companies.
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(Premium) – IBM’s $33 billion Red Hat acquisition will likely be cleared by EU and US regulators, which could green light the deal in 1H19. Precedents of mergers involving infrastructure software and DevOps tools are favourable to the companies and the deal may get an unconditional nod.
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