GEISHA KOW­LESSAR-ALON­ZO

Se­nior Re­porter

geisha.kow­lessar@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Fair Trad­ing Com­mis­sion (TTFTC) has launched a re­view of a pro­posed merg­er in­volv­ing for­eign com­pa­nies with sig­nif­i­cant op­er­a­tions in T&T and is invit­ing stake­hold­ers to weigh in on whether the trans­ac­tion can af­fect com­pe­ti­tion in the lo­cal en­er­gy ser­vices sec­tor.

The trans­ac­tion in­volves the ac­qui­si­tion of Buchan 2 Ltd and Score Group Ltd by Stellex Cap­i­tal Part­ners III LP and Or­beN­o­vo Ad­vi­so­ry LLP.

Ac­cord­ing to the TTFTC, the com­pa­nies con­duct com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ties in T&T, plac­ing the deal with­in its ju­ris­dic­tion un­der the Fair Trad­ing Act.

Speak­ing on the re­view process, the TTFTC’s ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Be­van Nar­i­nesingh told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day the merg­er met the statu­to­ry thresh­old for in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­cause the par­ties op­er­ate in T&T and have an­nu­al turnover ex­ceed­ing TT$50 mil­lion.

Nar­i­nesingh ex­plained that the com­pa­nies are ac­tive in the en­er­gy and in­dus­tri­al ser­vices sec­tor, pro­vid­ing the sup­ply, re­pair, re­fur­bish­ment, test­ing and main­te­nance of in­dus­tri­al valves and ac­tu­a­tors, along with re­lat­ed en­gi­neer­ing and in­spec­tion ser­vices.

Their clients in­clude ma­jor en­er­gy com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing in T&T such as BP, Shell, Paren­co and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny. These ser­vices are crit­i­cal to the coun­try’s oil and gas, petro­chem­i­cal and wider in­dus­tri­al sec­tors.

He said the com­mis­sion has al­ready be­gun en­gag­ing cus­tomers and oth­er stake­hold­ers to de­ter­mine whether the trans­ac­tion could have any im­pli­ca­tions for mar­ket com­pe­ti­tion.

“We have not reached any con­clu­sion with re­spect to the merg­er,” Nar­i­nesingh stressed adding, “Our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to un­der­take an in­de­pen­dent and ob­jec­tive as­sess­ment and take in­to ac­count in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by the par­ties, our own re­view of the mar­ket and the views of rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers.”

The com­mis­sion’s re­view is be­ing con­duct­ed un­der Sec­tion 14 of the Fair Trad­ing Act, which gov­erns merg­ers and ac­qui­si­tions.

Nar­i­nesingh said the reg­u­la­tor’s ob­jec­tive is to en­sure that merg­ers are as­sessed with due re­gard for com­pe­ti­tion, con­sumer in­ter­ests and the wider econ­o­my.

He not­ed that while the com­mis­sion has iden­ti­fied the sec­tors in­volved, it is up to stake­hold­ers to in­di­cate whether the ac­qui­si­tion could neg­a­tive­ly af­fect ex­ist­ing com­mer­cial arrange­ments or com­pe­ti­tion in the mar­ket.

“The as­sess­ment will be dri­ven sig­nif­i­cant­ly by stake­hold­ers’ views and com­ments,” he said, adding that the com­mis­sion has made no as­sump­tions about the trans­ac­tion’s im­pact.

In­ter­est­ed par­ties have un­til No­vem­ber 17 to sub­mit com­ments to the com­mis­sion.

Un­der the Fair Trad­ing Act, the com­mis­sion has one month to re­view a com­plet­ed merg­er ap­pli­ca­tion and must de­cide whether to ap­prove the trans­ac­tion, re­ject it or re­quest ad­di­tion­al in­for­ma­tion.

Nar­i­nesingh said a de­ter­mi­na­tion is ex­pect­ed by ear­ly De­cem­ber and that the pub­lic would be in­formed of the com­mis­sion’s fi­nal de­ci­sion.