The Market Court has extended the processing time limit for the merger between Loomis AB and Automatia Pankkiautomaatit Oy, currently under investigation by the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA), until 23 September 2020. The FCCA applied to the Market Court for additional time to allow the parties to the merger to be given sufficient time to be heard.
On 14 May 2020, the FCCA launched a further investigation into a merger in which Loomis, a provider of valuables transport and money processing services, would acquire Automatia, the company maintaining Otto ATMs, from OP, Danske Bank and Nordea. On the basis of a preliminary assessment conducted by the Agency, the merger might have adverse effects on the already concentrated market for cash management services. The time limit for further investigation under the Competition Act would have expired on 21 August 2020.
On 12 August 2020, the FCCA applied to the Market Court for an extension of the processing time limit until 23 September 2020 in order to enable the parties to the merger to have sufficient time to be heard and to respond appropriately to the investigations by the Agency. In order to investigate the competitive effects of the merger, the FCCA has carried out extensive studies on the market for valuables transport and money processing services and the total cash management services of banks. The implementation of the investigations has been significantly slowed down and hampered by the exceptional circumstances caused by the corona crisis.
The party that had announced the merger did not oppose to the extension of the time limit, and the Market Court approved the FCCA’s application on 13 August 2020.
Read more:
- FCCA opens in-depth investigation into the proposed merger of Loomis and Automatia, a FCCA press release dated 14 May 2020
Additional information:
Aapo Aaltio, Economist, tel. +358 (0)29 505 3003
Head of Research Mikko Heinonen, tel. +358 029 505 3162
firstname.lastname@kkv.fi