The Commerce Commission has received an application from King Pharmacy Group Limited seeking clearance to acquire the pharmacy business of Community Pharmacy Limited.

King Pharmacy owns and operates two pharmacies in the Christchurch suburb of Linwood: Linwood Dispensary and Eastgate Pharmacy. Community Pharmacy is also situated in Linwood.

A public version of the application will be available on the clearances register shortly.

Background

Assessing an application for a merger or acquisition

When considering a proposed merger, the Commission must decide whether the competition that is lost in a market when two businesses merge is substantial. We will give clearance to a proposed merger only if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

A fact sheet explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on the Merger Assessment fact sheet page.