The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) approved on 25 September 2017 the transaction whereby CGI Nordic Investments Limited will buy Affecto Oyj. The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority has concluded that the acquisition will not significantly impede, as referred to in the Competition Act, effective competition in the Finnish market.
CGI Nordic Investments Limited is a subsidiary of CGI Group Inc. CGI Group offers information technology and business process services, such as system integration and application software development and maintenance. CGI Group operates in Finland through CGI Suomi Oy.
Affecto produces solutions focusing on business information management and data management for private and public sector customers. Affecto also offers geographic datasets and geographic data software and systems used in maps and other products containing geographic data.
According to FCCA’s market analysis, you cannot draw the conclusion that the acquisition of Affecto by CGI would impede competition significantly as referred to in the Competition Act. There will be numerous competitors in the IT services market even after this transaction.
FCCA’s decision includes business secrets of the parties involved. The decision cannot be published until the business secrets have been removed, i.e. in around two weeks’ time.
According to the Competition Act, the FCCA must be notified of the transaction if the combined turnover of the parties to the corporate transaction exceeds 350 million euros and the turnover of at least two of the parties resulting from Finland exceeds 20 million euros for both. FCCA approves a corporate transaction if it has no harmful impacts referred to in the Competition Act. FCCA will intervene in corporate transactions if its investigations suggest that the acquisition substantially impedes effective competition on Finnish markets or a substantial part of the markets, particularly through the creation or reinforcement of a dominant market position.