By its unanimous Decision No. 769/2022, the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) approved today, under Greek merger control rules, the proposed acquisition of sole control by the company "DELTA Societe Anonyme Food and Commercial Company Sole Proprietors", a subsidiary of VIVARTIA HOLDINGS SA and indirectly controlled by the investment fund CVC, over " Daniel S. Gatenio & Son Societe Anonyme Export and Export Company, food and beverages ".
The merger does not present a significant horizontal dimension, in the wider dairy sector, as the participating companies DELTA (and / or DODONI which also belongs to the investment capital CVC) and GATENIO are either, not active in the same market or, although there is a horizontal overlap (soft cheeses, semi-hard cheeses, etc.), their combined shares in the relevant markets fall short of the relevant thresholds to produce anticompetitive effects.
The proposed merger has mainly a vertical dimension as company GATENIO is mainly active in the Greek dairy market, with imports of cream, condensed milk, etc., as raw materials, which are used or can be used as inputs, for the production of retail dairy products, in relevant markets, (like yogurts, yogurt desserts, milk drinks, butter, etc.), in which the dairy industry DELTA (and / or DODONI, which belongs to the investment fund CVC) operate. These, however, mainly use as raw material raw Greek milk.
Also, with regard to the marketing of the products for the markets in question, the countervailing power of customers and competitors of the merging companies and the data collected for each affected market in the Greek dairy sector, all suggest, that the acquisition in question will not cause structural changes in the relevant markets nor will it lead to the exclusion of competitors, of dairy industries DELTA or DODONI, from access to input market and to customers.
Therefore, the HCC approved, according to article 8 par. 3 of law 3959/2011, the notified merger that concerns the change of control, given that, this merger, despite falling within its scope of paragraph 1 of article 6 of law 3959/2011, does not cause serious doubts, as to its compatibility with the requirements of competition in the related markets.