The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on Friday said that it has approved food and retail conglomerate Uni-President Group’s (統一集團) bid to take full ownership of hypermarket operator Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福), with several conditions attached.
The commission said the acquisition was approved on Wednesday.
To protect the interests of small and medium-sized suppliers and curb monopolistic price gouging, the conglomerate must not take advantage of its dominant distribution channels to discriminate against suppliers without legitimate reasons, the commission said.
Photo: CNA
In the three years following the acquisition, Presicarre Corp (家福) should maintain its special transaction program for small and medium-sized suppliers — those with annual trading value of less than NT$1 million (US$32,636) — and ensure that any change to the program does not put those suppliers in a less favorable position, the commission added.
Presicarre, the operator of Carrefour Taiwan, was established by Carrefour SA and Uni-President in 1987 as a joint venture to introduce hypermarkets to Taiwan under the Carrefour brand.
For three years after the closing of the acquisition, Presicarre and Uni-President may not discuss “copurchasing” of goods with individual suppliers, unless requested by the latter, the commission said.
During that period, Uni-President must submit a report to the commission by June 1 every year to verify that it has complied with the conditions.
The agency also stipulated several conditions about the composition of the board of directors at Presicarre after the acquisition.
Uni-President Group in July last year announced that its two affiliates — President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) and Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), which together hold 40 percent of Carrefour Taiwan — had agreed to take full ownership of Carrefour Taiwan by acquiring the 60 percent stake owned by the hypermarket’s French parent company.
The group at the time said that Uni-President Enterprises would acquire an additional 49.5 percent share in Carrefour Taiwan for NT$23.9 billion and President Chain Store would acquire 10.5 percent for NT$5.1 billion.
The NT$29 billion valuation translates into a price of about NT$65 per share, Uni-President said.
Following the acquisition, Uni-President Enterprises would have a 70 percent stake in Carrefour Taiwan and President Chain Store would have 30 percent, it said.
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