Given that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is often pretty rigorous in these matters (Exhibit A: See the Australian divestitures required in Pfizer/Wyeth, earlier this week), I thought I'd look into where things stand, for Merck and Schering-Plough -- in Australia -- this morning.
Here are the two letters (as large PDF files) the ACCC wrote to various industry participants, and stakeholders, soliciting views on the Australian Animal Health markets (3.3Mb), and the Australian Human Health markets (2.9Mb), respectively, this summer.
As you can see from the below status rundown, the Australian authorities are awaiting answers from the two companies, and have essentially suspended work on the files, until they are received:
19th May 2009 | ACCC commenced review under the Merger Review Process Guidelines.
3rd June 2009 | ACCC requested further information from the merger parties. ACCC timeline suspended.
9th June 2009 | Closing date for submissions from interested parties.
8th July 2009 | ACCC received further information from the merger parties. ACCC timeline recommenced.
13th July 2009 | ACCC requested further information from the merger parties.21st July 2009 | ACCC timeline suspended pending receipt of information requested from the merger parties. ACCC will set an indicative decision date upon receipt of information requested from the merger parties. . . .
As has occasionally been the case in other large transactions, if the overlap in Australia is not considered overwhelming, the companies may simply agree to a "close-around-in-Australia" -- to complete the reverse merger in Australia (on whatever terms the ACCC ultimately permits) "within the next two years", for example. Even that solution will require the informal assent of the ACCC, though.
2 comments:
and from today's FT
There is undoubtedly pressure to consolidate. “The changes in the macro-environment have transformed everything,” said Fred Hassan, head of Schering-Plough, earlier this year when explaining his agreement to the takeover by Merck. He argued that the financial crisis accelerated existing cost and pricing pressures.
reverse merger????
The ACCC timeline has now recommenced, from the web :
Date Event
19th May 2009 ACCC commenced review under the Merger Review Process Guidelines.
3rd June 2009 ACCC requested further information from the merger parties. ACCC timeline suspended.
9th June 2009 Closing date for submissions from interested parties.
8th July 2009 ACCC received further information from the merger parties. ACCC timeline recommenced.
13th July 2009 ACCC requested further information from the merger parties.
21st July 2009 ACCC timeline suspended pending receipt of information requested from the merger parties. ACCC will set an indicative decision date upon receipt of information requested from the merger parties.
21st September 2009 ACCC received requested information from merger parties. ACCC timeline recommenced.
14th October 2009 Proposed date for announcement of ACCC's findings.
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