SOCIETÀ ESERCIZI COMMERCIALI INDUSTRIALI-S.E.C.I.- CO.PRO.B.-FINBIETICOLA-SACOFIN/ERIDANIA-ERIBAND
PRESS RELEASE
Press release
The Competition Authority has authorised the acquisition of Eridiana by Seci-Sadam, Coprob and Finbieticola on certain conditions
At its meeting on 1 August 2002 the Competition Authority resolved to authorise the acquisition of Eridiana by Seci-Sadam, Coprob and Finbieticola on condition that they fully comply with a number of commitments entered into.
The Authority ruled that the takeover, as originally notified, could give rise to a collective dominant position by Seci-Sadam and Coprob-Finbieticola, with anti-competitive effects on the Italian sugar production market, and repercussions upstream of the sugar beet supply and seed distribution markets due to the participation in the operation of Finbieticola, as the entity representing sugar beet producers' associations.
The combination of several circumstances (joint market share of approximately 73 percent, equally shared between the two operators Sadam and Coprob-Finbieticola, the maturity and transparency of the market, the homogeneity of the product) would have created conditions for the convergence of interest between the two companies, giving in the two national operators a market position which would make it economically rational and particularly realistic to tacitly adopt common policies to the detriment of competition.
The acquiring companies had, however, entered into a number of commitments with which they must comply fully operation to be authorised, since the Authority considered them adequate to remove the danger that following the operation competition would be substantially limited on a lasting basis on the sugar, sugar beet supply and sugar beet seed distribution markets.
Rome, 13 August 2002