The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) has initiated further proceedings regarding the proposed merger in which Lantmännen would purchase Sponmill Oy and its subsidiary Myllyn Paras Finland Oy.
Lantmännen is a Swedish agricultural cooperative that operates in the food industry and trades with grain, among other things. Lantmännen sells products under, for example, the Vaasan brand. Sponmill owns Myllyn Paras Finland Oy, which manufactures frozen bakery products and grain mill products.
Based on the FCCA’s initial investigation, the merger may have adverse competition effects on the Finnish bakery products market. Based on the initial investigation, the market share of the parties is significant in the sale of certain frozen bakery products to retailers and foodservice wholesalers. Customers of foodservice wholesalers include restaurants and hotels.
The FCCA considers it important to continue investigating the competition effects of the merger. The further proceedings will examine whether the merger may significantly impede effective competition in the Finnish market or a substantial part thereof. As a result, FCCA may approve the merger as such, approve it conditionally, or propose that the Market Court prohibit the deal. The further proceedings may take a maximum of 69 working days. The Market Court may extend the deadline for the further proceedings by at most 46 working days.
The FCCA’s decision contains confidential business secrets of the parties. The decision cannot therefore be made public until after the business secrets have been removed.
Further information:
Email-addresses are in the form firstname.lastname@kkv.fi