The European Commission (EC) has unconditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Mercator by Fortenova as the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area under the EU Merger Regulation, the EC said in a press release on Tuesday.

The approved merger gives the Fortenova Group control over Mercator’s business operations.

The EC notes that the transaction “forms part of the broader restructuring of Fortenova’s predecessor Agrokor.”

“In essence, it reintegrates Mercator into the same corporate group to which it belonged from 2014, when Agrokor acquired control over Mercator, up until April 2019, when all other Agrokor assets but for Mercator were transferred to Fortenova.

The Commission says that during its investigation, it “received feedback from a broad range of local and international competitors, suppliers and customers of Fortenova and Mercator, including producers of daily consumer goods, wholesale suppliers and retailers.”

The Fortnenova Group said in a press release that for the territories of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia the concentration was filed with the competent local market competition regulators and all national authorities except for the Competition Commission of the Republic of Serbia have now approved the concentration.

This has paved the way for the transfer of Mercator to be realised by the end of this year and for Fortenova Group’s retail as of 2021 to start acting on the market as a common, regional group, whose operations are in the interest of all stakeholders – from employees through suppliers and shareholders to the entire economic environment, both in the national states and regionwide” – said Fabris Perusko, Chief Executive Officer of Fortenova Group commenting on the EC decision as carried by Fortenova’s press release.

Mercator Management Board President Tomislav Cizmic also underscored that this is an exceptionally important step.

“A strong owner will enable Mercator’s further growth and development, and support Mercator’s strategic projects, including the €130 million investment into a new logistics centre in Ljubljana,” said Cizmic.