The Antitrust Authority opposes selling supermarket chain Mega to Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing 2006 Ltd. (TASE:RMLI). The Authority has conveyed this message to the trustees of Mega several times, and it was repeated in a further conversation with the trustees yesterday.
The Authority also opposes selling Mega to Shufersal Ltd. (TASE:SAE), although it was clear from the outset that this was not on the cards.
Antitrust Authority officials told "Globes" that they saw fit to make clear to the trustees in advance that the chances of a deal like this were worse than slim, in order to avoid a situation in which the trustees would proceed with a sale of Mega to Rami Levy and afterwards approach the Antitrust Authority and present the sale as the sole option.
A senior Antitrust Authority official said, "We told the trustees that the Authority had severe reservations about such a deal. We believe that our reservations should be made known. Rami Levy is huge. It is the largest in terms of sales, and so the number of branches is not the important factor here but rather sales turnover, and in that respect Rami Levy is well ahead of the next largest chain, Yenot Bitan. After a deal like that it would be like Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi in retailing. It would be a catastrophe in the long term."
Are you saying this in the wake of an approach to the Antitrust Authority?
"Rami Levy made a discreet approach to the Antitrust Authority, even before the stay of proceedings at Mega, and tried to check the possibility. He was told that there was no chance. We know that he is going to make an offer, and we don't know for certain that the trustees won't accept the offer. We wanted to make things clear before anything was closed, and before they turn to the Antitrust Authority and say, 'It's Rami Levy or nothing.'"
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 1, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016