Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.11332 - PSP / MACQUARIE / ART / LSSA / LSWA) – Candidate case for simplified procedure
Date: 2024-01-16
Institutions: Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
Subjects: Australia, Canada, economic concentration, financial services, land register, merger control, pension fund, property market, provision of services, real estate market








C_202400838EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
Series C













C/2024/838


16.1.2024






Prior notification of a concentration
(Case M.11332 - PSP / MACQUARIE / ART / LSSA / LSWA)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
(C/2024/838)


1.   
On 18 December 2023, 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:






—


PSP Torrens Trust and PSIB Terra Trust, both controlled by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (‘PSP’, Canada),










—


MAIT1 Registries Trust (‘MAIT1’, Australia) and Macquarie Australian Infrastructure Management 2 Limited (‘MAIT2’, Australia), both controlled by Macquarie Group Limited (‘Macquarie’, Australia),










—


Autralian Retirement Trust (‘ART’, Australia),










—


Land Services South Australia (‘LSSA’, Australia), currently controlled by ART, and










—


Land Services Western Australia (‘LSWA’, Australia), currently not controlled by any individual shareholder.




PSP, Macquarie and ART will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control of LSSA and LSWA.
The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares and securities.


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






—


PSP is a Canadian pension fund which manages a diversified global portfolio mainly in capital markets, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and credit investments.










—


Macquarie is a global financial services group operating in asset management, retail and business banking, wealth management, leasing and asset financing, market access, commodity trading, renewables development, specialist advisory, capital raising and principal investment. In particular, Macquarie manages funds (MAIT1 and MAIT2) that are part of the Australian operations of Macquarie Asset Management’s Private Markets business which specialises in infrastructure and green investments, real estate, agriculture and natural assets, asset finance and private credit.










—


ART is an Australian pension fund which manages over A$260 billion in retirement savings for 2.3 million members.










—


LSSA is the exclusive service provider to the South Australian Government for a range of transactional land services and property valuation services. LSSA also provides services and solutions to commercial customers leveraging LSSA’s access to land and property data in relation to South Australia.










—


LSWA provides services and solutions to Landgate, a statutory authority of the Western Australian Government that is the official register of property and land information in Western Australia. LSWA also provides services and solutions to commercial customers leveraging LSWA’s non-exclusive access to land and property data in relation to Western Australia.






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 treatment for certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the 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. The following reference should always be specified:
M.11332 - PSP / MACQUARIE / ART / LSSA / LSWA
Observations can be sent to the Commission by email or by post. Please use the contact details below:
Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu
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 160, 5.5.2023, p. 1.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/838/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)