Brussels, 29/08/2023 (Agence Europe) – On Tuesday, 29 August, the European Commission announced that it had approved the acquisition of joint control ([in a] joint venture)—through the purchase of shares—of Universo IME S.A. (Portugal) by the group Sonae SGPS S.A. (Portugal) and Bankinter Consumer Finance E.F.C. S.A. (Spain), or BKCF, which is active in retail banking. Universo notably offers payment services to consumers and credit intermediation for consumer loans granted by third parties.
The transaction—whose notification date was 3 August—was approved following a simplified merger review procedure.The European Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would not pose any competition concerns. In fact, the institution found the horizontal overlaps and vertical links between Sonae’s and BKCF’s activities in the European Economic Area to be limited.
Link to the case in the European Commission’s register: https://aeur.eu/f/8dd (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)