EDIZIONE HOLDING/AUTOSTRADE-CONCESSIONI E COSTRUZIONI AUTOSTRADE
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Conditional clearance for the Edizione Holding-Autostrade acquisition
The Competition Authority has completed the investigation that began on 20 January 2000 into the acquisition of the controlling interest in Autostrade S.p.A. by Edizione Holding S.p.A., and has authorized the operation provided that the following conditions are met, pursuant to section 6(2) of the Competition Act (Law No 287/90):
1) Autostrade S.p.A. and its motorway services franchisee subsidiaries must not directly supply the refreshment/restaurant services and must always commission third parties to supply these services using transparent, non-discriminatory and adequately publicized competitive tendering procedures;
b) Autostrade S.p.A. and its subsidiaries must commission one or more independent and highly qualified third parties to manage these competitive tender procedures, and to lay down the conditions for admission to the tender and the criteria for adjudication, and adequately publicize all the relevant information;
c) Autogrill must not increase its present 72 percent share of the total number of the total number of restaurant/refreshment services directly or indirectly entrusted to it on the motorways managed by the Autostrade group.
The investigation was originally conducted in view of the impact of the acquisition on the market for subfranchised services on motorway service stations and motorway restaurants/refreshment services. In this case, Augrill, a company controlled by Edizione Holding S.p.A., operates on 180 of the 249 services on the motorway network managed by the Autostrade Group, accounting for over 80 percent of the overall turnover from restaurants/refreshment services provided on that network.
As notified the acquisition would therefore be likely to strengthen the dominant position already held by Autogrill.
Rome, 2 March 2000.