LONDON: The Office of Fair Trading today accepted undertakings offered by the Saint-Gobain group (the owners of Jewson) to address the competition concerns arising from its completed acquisition of Wolseley’s Build Center. The merger will not be referred to the Competition Commission.
The undertakings require Jewson to sell 23 builders’ merchant branches in 22 local areas to resolve the competition concerns identified by the OFT during its investigation into the merger.
Under the terms of the undertakings, the OFT must approve purchasers before they can buy any of the stores. The OFT will carefully assess the suitability of purchasers in each local area to ensure that they are capable of providing sufficient competition to the merged Jewson and Build Center business and other builders’ merchants in the area.
Ali Nikpay, senior director at the OFT and decision-maker in this case, said: “The OFT was concerned that builders and other tradesmen would see an increase in prices for building materials as a result of this merger in a number of local areas. We are satisfied that the divestments offered by Jewson will remedy these concerns and restore pre-merger competition.”
