Argentina occupies the penultimate position in the ranking of mega-mergers of companies in Latin America

Argentina occupies the penultimate position in the ranking of mergers and acquisitions of large companies at the regional level, according to a report that places Brazil first in the number of notified transactions in Latin America, followed by Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru. The data corresponds to the latest report from the financial platform Transactional Track Record (TTR), which examines the map of mergers and acquisitions around the world.

The number of business integration operations is high and contrary to the idea that they can lead to the creation of monopolies and market distortions, less than 5% of transactions notified at the international level are subject to packaging or are rejected by the competition authorities.

Among the main international mergers that have had an impact in Argentina, we can mention, by way of example, the merger of Dow Chemical / Dupont (in markets such as agrochemicals, industrial inputs, etc.) and Disney / Fox (in the entertainment, media, and film and television content industry). In both cases, some of the regulators’ concerns were resolved through divestments or behavioral commitments.

In the first case, the merger of the two giants gave birth to “DowDuPont»Divided into three business units: agriculture, materials science and specialty products. The operation has been submitted for analysis by the regulatory body of 23 jurisdictions around the world and approved in all cases.

However, in some countries, such as Brazil, companies have had to make certain divestment commitments on certain assets, in order to alleviate competitive concerns from regulators. In Argentina, the operation was approved without conditions, although companies have previously made some supposed divestments globally that have also had an effect on the local market.

In June 2018, Disney made official its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox, a content distribution company and entertainment, sports and film channels around the world. The purchase was also submitted to the executing authority of 23 countries around the world, including jurisdictions in Latin America, where it was approved without conditions except for 3 countries (Brazil, Chile and Ecuador), who approved the operation through conditionality agreements or remedies. related to the sports signals and content markets, and Mexico, where partial divestment was required in that market. It was only pending approval in the Argentine Republic.

As for Argentina, the regulatory agency published its “Objection report” in November of last year. From there, the agency analysis of alternatives and requests for additional information, in order to have access to more and better information on the functioning of the market in order to reach a solution of commitments allowing to resolve the questions raised at the time of the final decision-making.

Access here the full report of Transaction history

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