Full-function joint venture addressed to Retail Marketing Limited, Co-op Trading Company Limited, Polrem Limited, S. Borg & Sons Limited, Tower Supermarkets Complex Limited, Valyou Pendergardens Operations LTD, Belleview Supermarkets Co. LTD. and Valyou Supermarket Limited

Abstract

1. On 30 December 2019, the Office for Competition within the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (hereinafter referred to as “the Office”) received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to regulation 5 of the Control of Concentrations Regulations by which Retail Marketing Limited (hereinafter also referred to as “joint venture entity”) will itself take over all supermarket operations currently being conducted by Co-op Trading Company Limited, Polrem Limited, S. Borg & Sons Limited, Tower Supermarkets Complex Limited, Valyou Pendergardens Operations Ltd., Belleview Supermarkets Co. Ltd. and Valyou Supermarket Limited (hereinafter collectively referred to as “the Notifying Parties”).

2. The filing and the acceptance of such notification was notified to the public through a public notice in the Government Gazette number 20,327 on 10 January 2020 and a notice that appeared in a local newspaper and on the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority’s website on 10 January 2020.

3. Together with the Concentration Notification (CN) form, the notifying parties also submitted an economic and competitive assessment as compiled by Deloitte Services Limited on the grocery retail market in Malta. The aim of this market competitive assessment is to analyse and assess the indicative market competitive environment prevailing in the grocery retail sector both pre- and post- the potential integration of the operational activities of the four (4) established local supermarket chains, which collectively operate eight (8) retail supermarkets and one (1) convenience shop in Malta as shown in Table 1 below. In their market competitive assessment, the notifying parties estimated their market share to total per cent of the total grocery market and per cent of the supermarket sector, the discrepancy attributed to the fact that the former also includes convenience stores and local village grocers. As a result, the notifying parties argued that the Office should adopt the simplified procedure in assessing their proposed concentration in line with regulation 12 of the Control of Concentrations Regulations.