Acquisition of Bartter Halted

AUSTRALIA - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will oppose the proposed acquisition of Bartter Enterprises by Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd.
calendar icon 12 February 2009
clock icon 3 minute read

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced that it intends to oppose the proposed acquisition of Bartter Enterprises by Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd.

"The ACCC concluded that the acquisition of Bartter enterprises would be likely to substantially lessen competition in the markets for the supply of processed chicken meat," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said.

"The ACCC conducted extensive inquiries, including with customers, competitors, and chicken growers."

From this investigation, the information provided to the ACCC indicated that the three national chicken processors – Baiada, Bartter and Ingham – currently supply the vast majority of processed chicken to large volume buyers and are the closest competitors of each other.

Fast food restaurants comprise a large group of customers that are heavily reliant upon the three national processors for the supply of high volumes of processed chicken meat. The ACCC concluded that the smaller processors face high barriers to expansion, and as such are unlikely to be capable of imposing an effective competitive constraint upon the merged entity.

The merger would be likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition, with effects on prices for the fast food restaurants and their consumers.

Section 50 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 prohibits mergers and acquisitions that would have the effect, or be likely to have the effect, of substantially lessening competition in a market.

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