Brussels, 10/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission yesterday authorised plans for the takeover of the oil refinery Mazeikiu Nafta by the Polish oil company PKN Orlen. Both are active in oil refinery andthe sales of oil products in the new Member States, the former in the Baltic States and in Poland, the latter in the Czech Republic and also in Poland (as well as in Germany). Despite the geographic and sectorial overlap of their activities, the Commission took the view that the cumulative market shares of the companies would not be sufficient significantly to hinder effective competition, in line with regulation (EC) 139/2004 of the Council. Further to an initial agreement in May of this year, doubts were raised as to the execution of the acquisition of the original terms, further to a fire which hit the Mazeikiu refinery on 12 October. The Polish company, however, reaffirmed its intention to honour the contract, and plans to conclude the purchase of the share of Mazeikiu currently held by Yukos International UK B.V. (53.7%) by the end of February 2007.
On Tuesday, in application of the EC regulation on mergers, the Commission authorised the project relating to the purchase of the activities of the French telecommunications group Alcatel on rail signalling and controls, and also in the field of system integration (Transport and Systems Divisions of Alcatel) by the French company Thales. The Commission's examination of the planned operation showed that the horizontal overlaps between the activities of Thales and the "Transport and Systems" divisions of Alcatel were of only limited importance and that, for the sum total of the products in question, the enterprise born of the merger operation would continue to face several powerful and effective competitors. The planned concentration would, therefore, not significantly hinder effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or within a substantial part thereof. The partnership will consolidate relations between Thales and Alcatel, who have been working together since October 2004 to develop highly secure IP telephony solutions. This decision in no way prejudges the outcome of the examination underway into a parallel planned operation for Thales's purchase of Alcatel's stake in two common companies present in satellite and space Systems, Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio.
In virtue of the EC regulation on mergers, the Commission gave its blessing to the joint takeover of Discount24 GmbH & Co KG (Discount24) of Germany by Otto GmbH & Co KG (Otto), also Germany, and Cdiscount SA de France, which belongs to the Rallye group (France), on 8 November. Otto sells non-food products by catalogue and Internet, whilst Cdiscount and Discount24 both sell non-food products by Internet. The dossier was examined under the simplified procedure. (cd)