The Commerce Commission today cleared Waste Management NZ Limited to acquire Waste Care Limited subject to Waste Management divesting certain assets.

Commission Acting Chairman Mark Berry said that the divestment involves certain contractual rights that would facilitate the availability of waste volumes to landfills not owned or operated by Waste Management. The terms of the divestment are commercially sensitive and confidential.

This was Waste Management's second application to acquire Waste Care, the Commission having declined the first last month.

The first application did not include divestment and was declined because of dominance concerns about the Auckland regional market for disposal of solid non-hazardous waste. This is, in effect, the regional market for landfills.

In investigating the first application, the Commission considered the effect of the proposal on nine other relevant markets. In that case it concluded that in those markets it would be satisfied that dominance would not be acquired or strengthened by any parties.

Those nine markets are:

? seven regional markets around the country for the collection and delivery of solid non-hazardous waste, excluding excavated earth;

? the Auckland market for waste transfer stations for solid, non-hazardous waste; and

? the market for hiring portable toilets in the Hawkes Bay region.

Background

The Commerce Act prohibits business acquisitions that result in dominance being acquired or strengthened in any markets.

Parties can apply for a clearance, which the Commission will grant if it is satisfied that dominance is not acquired or strengthened. A clearance, if granted, protects an acquisition from court action under the Act.

Media contact: Commerce Act Manager Geoff Thorn

Phone work (04) 498 0958

Communications Officer Vincent Cholewa

Phone work (04) 498 0920

Commission media releases can be viewed on its web site www.comcom.govt.nz