Vj-119/1997/15
PICK SZEGED CO / RINGA MEAT PLC
PICK and RINGA both are meat-processing companies. Pick has majority ownership in six other undertakings and the joint market share of this group of undertakings on the Hungarian market, as the relevant geographic market, is 7 per cent. Its main product is of special kind, called "Wintersalami" which has 52.8 per cent market share on the market of dried meat products, one of the main group of products. Ringa has a similar (6.7 per cent) average market share to Pick, but it has only 0.4 per cent share on the market of dried products. Ringa has its largest market share on the market of the group of ham products and canned meat (34.4 and 32.2 per cent respectively) which product are not produced by Pick at all.
Pick planned to acquire 59.9 per cent of shares of Ringa therefore a preliminary authorisation of the Office of Economic Competition had to be requested by the undertakings as their joint net turnover in the previous business year exceeded 10 billion HUF, the threshold of notification under the Competition Act.
The Competition Council took into consideration the effect of the concentration on the competition and concluded that the notified concentration did not create or strengthen dominant position on the Hungarian meat market because the parties` joint average market share was only 13.7 per cent. The acquisition does not involve the possibility of establishment of a dominant position neither on the whole market nor on the market of any particular group of products since the main products of one undertaking are not produced by the other.
The Competition Council authorised the transaction.
October 15, 1997. Budapest
dr. Bodócsi András sk. előadó
Fógel Jánosné dr. sk.
dr. Kállai Mária sk.
Szabó Györgyi