Eurocash’ Partner takeover under UOKiK scrutiny

The antitrust watchdog UOKiK has sent the WSE-listed retailer Eurocash motion to takeover peer Partner to the second phase of the proceedings, reserved for more complicated cases. UOKiK wants to conduct, among others, market analysis. The watchdog plans to check whether the activities of individual stores belonging to both companies overlap with each other on local markets. As the supplier-recipient relationship also takes place between the participants of the acquisition, the authority will check the dependencies on the wholesale market. “The transaction regarding the takeover has been submitted to UOKiK at the end of June. Eurocash has a chain of its own stores, including Delikatesy Centrum, Eko, as well as stores affiliated in partner networks supervised by the company and franchisees. The group includes the Frisco e-commerce platform and a mobile network of 'ABC na kołach’ stores. The partner company has 26 'Lewiatan' stores. Both companies are also present on the wholesale market. For example, Eurocash sells many consumer goods to Partner,” UOKiK said.