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Australia: ACCC greenlights US$9b APA takeover

By  |  September 12, 2018

According to the Wall Street Journal, Australia’s antitrust regulator won’t stand in the way of a more than US$9 billion takeover of one of the country’s main gas-pipeline operators, putting the deal by Hong Kong’s CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) in the hands of foreign investment authorities.

On Wednesday, September 12, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it wouldn’t oppose the acquisition of APA Group after accepting plans from a CKI-led consortium to offload assets that would otherwise have meant a threat to competition when APA was merged with existing operations in the country.

Rod Sims, chairman of the ACCC, said concerns had been raised in the industry about APA’s dominance in gas transmission, but a takeover wouldn’t alter that in a material way.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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