The Competition Authority yesterday received a short merger notification regarding the acquisition of Míla ehf, a subsidiary of Síminn hf, by the fund management company Ardian France SA. Mergers may be notified by means of a short notification if on the fulfilment of certain conditions.
The Competition Authority, which has been in contact with the merging parties in the run-up to the notification, will next review the notification now that it has been received and assess whether it is complete, i.e. whether it contains all the necessary information about the merger as required by the rules.
The deadlines for the merger investigation will not begin to run until adequate notice has been received. The status of the case will therefore first appear on a more recent date. Information page on the status of mergers when the notification has been deemed satisfactory.
The merger notification from Ardian and Míla follows the merger parties' initial disclosure of the transaction in a letter on 1 November 2021, but then stated that the merger was not reportable in their opinion due to Ardian's limited activity in Iceland.
The Competition Authority called for notification regarding the merger. 19 November The Competition Authority considered that there were grounds to request a merger filing for the acquisition and to review it under the merger provisions of the Competition Act, as permitted by law.
The merger parties, however, informed on 22 December last that the turnover of Ardian and its subsidiaries was greater in Iceland than they had previously believed. The merger was therefore subject to notification, and the parties were obliged to notify the Competition Authority in accordance with competition law.
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