"If Nochi Dankner believed that the acquisition of Hanson by Nesher was liable to cause injustice or any harm to competition in the economy, he wouldn’t have approved the deal," said IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) spokesman today, ahead of the decisive meeting by the Antitrust Authority to discuss the merger of Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises Ltd. and Hanson Israel Ltd.
Antitrust Authority director general Ronit Kan will meet executives from Nesher and Hanson on Sunday ahead of her decision. At a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee last week, which discussed the merger, Kan said that she might oppose the deal.
Kan said, "This is a complicated merger, and we're examining it thoroughly. This is a major merger. We need to examine its repercussions, and have a concrete and solid stance. The guiding principle of the Antitrust Authority is competition, and only competition."
Meanwhile, sources said today that IDB chairman and CEO Dankner met Finance Committee member MK Haim Oron (Meretz) early last week. Oron opposes the Nesher-Hanson merger, and initiated last week's discussion by the committee.
Oron confirmed that he met Dankner. He told "Globes", "Dankner explained the interests of the Nesher-Hanson merger and why it won't create vertical and horizontal monopolies. In any event, the subject of the meeting wasn’t the Nesher-Hanson merger. We devoted maybe three minutes to the issue at the end of the meeting."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 12, 2009
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