Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.10981 – ITOCHU / TOKYO CENTURY / HCM / JV) Candidate case for simplified procedure (Text with EEA relevance) 2022/C 492/02
Date: 2022-12-27
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: construction equipment, economic concentration, financial services, hire purchase, machinery, merger control, provision of services








C_2022492EN.01000201.xml










27.12.2022   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 492/2






Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.10981 – ITOCHU / TOKYO CENTURY / HCM / JV)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(2022/C 492/02)

1.   
On 15 December 2022, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).
This notification concerns the following undertakings:






—


Itochu Corporation (‘Itochu’, Japan),










—


Tokyo Century Corporation (‘Tokyo Century’, Japan),










—


Hitachi Construction Machinery CO., Ltd (‘HCM’, Japan).




Itochu, Tokyo Century and HCM will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control of a newly created company constituting a joint venture (the ‘JV’).
The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares in the JV.


2.   
The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:






—


Itochu is a trading company for various products from across a wide range of industries,










—


Tokyo Century provides a variety of financing services, including financial leasing services, operating leasing services and installment sales with regard to a variety of equipment,










—


HCM manufactures and sales construction machinery, transportation machinery and other machines and devices.






3.   

The business activities of the JV will be the offering of financing services related to HCM-products to dealers and retail customers, as well as financial services related to non-HCM-products upon request of its clients.



4.   
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 the Notice.


5.   
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. The following reference should always be specified:
M.10981 – ITOCHU / TOKYO CENTURY / HCM / JV
Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:
Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu
Fax +32 22964301
Postal 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.