Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.8384 — Carlyle/CITIC/McDonald’s/McDonald’s China) — Candidate case for simplified procedure (Text with EEA relevance. )
Date: 2017-04-13
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: catering industry, economic concentration, franchising, investment company, merger control








C_2017120EN.01002801.xml










13.4.2017   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 120/28





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.8384 — Carlyle/CITIC/McDonald’s/McDonald’s China)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2017/C 120/16)






1.


On 7 April 2017, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which The Carlyle Group (‘Carlyle’, United States), CITIC Capital and CITIC Limited (‘CITIC’, China) together with McDonald’s Corporation (‘McDonald’s’, United States) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the whole of McDonald’s China Management Limited (‘Target’), which comprises the Mainland China and Hong Kong businesses of McDonald’s, by way of purchase of shares.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
—   for Carlyle: manages funds that invest globally across four investment disciplines, namely Corporate Private Equity (buyout and growth capital), Real Assets (real estate, infrastructure and energy), Global Market Strategies (structured credit, mezzanine, distressed, hedge funds, and middle market debt) and Solutions (private equity fund of funds program and related co-investment and secondary activities).
—   for CITIC: is engaged in both financial and non-financial businesses. The group’s financial businesses cover a full range of services including commercial banking, investment banking, trust, insurance, fund management and asset management. The group’s non-financial businesses include real estate, engineering contracting, energy and resources, infrastructure construction, machinery manufacturing and IT industry.
—   for McDonald’s: is active worldwide in the quick service restaurant industry, operating and franchising McDonald’s restaurants, which serve a locally-relevant menu of food and drinks in over 36 000 locations in more than 100 countries. McDonald’s global system is comprised of both McDonald’s-owned and franchised restaurants with more than 80 % of McDonald’s restaurants owned and operated by independent franchisees.
—   for the Target: the Target business includes over 2 000 McDonald’s restaurants in Mainland China and Hong Kong.










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.8384 — Carlyle/CITIC/McDonald’s/McDonald’s China, 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.