New mergers to face tough approval test

LARGER Irish firms contemplating a merger look set to face a tougher approval process following the recent hand-over of responsibility for merger control by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment.

This responsibility has now been handed over almost completely to the Competition Authority and yesterday, its chairman, John Fingleton stressed that a merger would only be permitted if it did not lead to a “substantial lessening in competition in the State”.

Commenting on the new rules, the head of the Authority’s Mergers Division, Dermot Nolan, said that the change would: “Bring more transparency and political independence to the system. More economic reasoning would be introduced into merger regulation.”