Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.8274 — Cinven/Permira/Allegro/Ceneo) — Candidate case for simplified procedure (Text with EEA relevance )
Date: 2016-11-30
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: economic concentration, electronic commerce, merger control, retail trade








C_2016445EN.01000701.xml










30.11.2016   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 445/7





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.8274 — Cinven/Permira/Allegro/Ceneo)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2016/C 445/04)






1.


On 23 November 2016, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings Raiva sp. z o. o. and Adinan BidCo 2 sp. z o. o., investment vehicles under the indirect joint control of private equity funds managed or advised by Permira Holdings Limited, acting through Permira VI G.P. Limited (together, ‘Permira’, United Kingdom) and Cinven Capital Management (VI) General Partner Limited (‘Cinven’, Guernsey) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of Grupa Allegro sp. z o. o. (‘Allegro’) and Ceneo sp. z o. o. (‘Ceneo’) by way of purchase of shares.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
—   for Permira: a private equity business engaged in the provision of investment management services to a number of investment funds. Permira controls a number of portfolio companies which are active in a variety of sectors across a range of jurisdictions,
—   for Cinven: a private equity business engaged in the provision of investment management and advisory services to a number of investment funds. Cinven controls a number of portfolio companies which are active in a variety of sectors across a range of jurisdictions,
—   for Allegro: an operator of an online marketplace portal using the allegro.pl and allegro.de domain names. Allegro facilitates e-commerce transactions between online shoppers and vendors who offer various goods on its marketplace portal,
—   for Ceneo: an operator of an online price comparison portal at the ceneo.pl domain name. Ceneo’s portal allows online sellers to advertise their goods and services and users of the portal to compare prices and obtain information about the sellers’ goods and services.










3.


On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in this Notice.










4.


The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference M.8274 — Cinven/Permira/Allegro/Ceneo, to the following address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË










(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).

(2)  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.