The Commerce Commission yesterday evening cleared CentralPower to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Electro Power.
Commission Member Joe Auton said that after studying the proposal, the Commission concluded the proposed merger would not result in any company acquiring or strengthening a dominant position in any market.
The Commerce Act prohibits business acquisitions that result in dominance being acquired or strengthened. The Commission will grant a clearance if it is satisfied that dominance is not acquired or strengthened.
The Commission considered the impact of the proposal on several electricity distribution and retailing markets.
The Commission's view is a merger of CentralPower and Electro Power would result in limited aggregation in the competitive national retail electricity market and a minimal loss of cross-border competition in the merged entity's electricity distribution market. However, that loss of competition is not such that it would give rise to dominance concerns.
In addition, the competitive constraints currently faced by the companies would not be significantly changed by the proposed acquisition.
Media contact:Communications Officer Vincent Cholewa
