Brussels, 02/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - In response to a request from the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT, the UK competition authority), the European Commission has decided to refer to the OFT the competence to assess the impact of the acquisition of NHP by the US Blackstone merchant-banking firm. NHP is a company active in the UK private care home market for the elderly, an area in which the Blackstone group has been present since the acquisition of Southern Cross Healthcare Limited. After a...