On 7 August 2018, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) approved Visma Finland Holding Oy’s acquisition of Aditro Public Oy.The FCCA has concluded that the acquisition will not significantly impede effective competition in the Finnish market.
Visma Finland Holding Oy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Norwegian Visma AS. Visma Group engages in corporate IT software and services especially in the Nordic countries. Aditro Public Oy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish company, Aditro Holding AB. Aditro mainly engages in corporate software and related services and consultation.
The FCCA has concluded that the acquisition will not significantly impede effective competition on the Finnish market. According to the assessment of the Authority, even after the acquisition there will be other competitors in the market segments in which the parties to the acquisition have overlapping operations. Furthermore, the regulatory reviews conducted by the FCCA did not reveal any harmful effects related to the acquisition.
The FCCA’s decision includes business secrets of the parties involved. The decision cannot be published until the business secrets have been removed.
More information:
- Sanna Syrjälä, Head of Research, tel. +358 (0)29 505 3385, firstname.lastname@kkv.fi
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 from Finland of at least two of the parties exceeds a combined total of 20 million euros. The FCCA will approve a corporate transaction if it has none of the harmful impacts referred to in the Competition Act. The 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. Where necessary, notifications of acquisitions are considered in two stages. The so-called first stage takes a month at most. If the acquisition is clearly not harmful to competition, or if the harmful effects can be prevented by means proposed by the parties to the acquisition, the acquisition is approved during the first stage. If not, the FCCA decides to conduct a further investigation of the matter, during which the acquisition and its competition effects are investigated in further detail.