At the end of June, the Competition Council (KP) made the decision to permit Estonian investment company Dragad OU to join Estonia-based holding Maral Invest OU, as confirmed by KP representative Zane Gorskova.
She said that after this merge Dragad OU would cease to exist and would be excluded from the Commercial Register of Estonia.
KP did not notice any significant risks for competition and decided to permit the deal.
Maral Invest OU is a holding and its group companies JSC Latvijas Maiznieks, UAB Lietuvos kepejas and Eesti Pagar JSC produce and sell bread, various bread products and pastries in fresh, thawed and frozen form.
Dragad OU is an Estonia-based investment company. Cristella VT OU, which is a part of this company, is engaged in the production of various types of frozen pastries, mainly frozen cakes, sweet sandwiches, pies, croissants, as well as on order products.
The merge will affect vertically linked markets – the market for the production and supply of frozen pastries and the wholesale market for frozen pastries.
After evaluating information provided by companies and the information already available to KP, it was concluded that the merge would not affect the market structure by much, competition would not go down and no monopoly on Latvian markets would form. This is why the deal was permitted. (BNN/Business World Magazine)
