CELEX: 32019M9694
Language: en
Date: 2019-12-23 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 23/12/2019 declaring a concentration to be compatible with the common market (Case No COMP/M.9694 - HERMES / IRIDIUM / JV) according to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (Only the English text is authentic)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
                                                                Brussels, 23.12.2019
                                                                C(2019) 9502 final
                                                                                 PUBLIC VERSION
                                                                To the notifying parties
Subject:        Case M.9694 – HERMES / IRIDIUM / JV
                Commission decision pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation
                                       1
                (EC) No 139/2004 and Article 57 of the Agreement on the European
                                    2
                Economic Area
Dear Sir or Madam,
1.      On 29 November 2019, the European Commission received notification of a proposed
        concentration pursuant to Article 4 of the Merger Regulation by which Hermes GPE
        LLP (“Hermes”, United Kingdom), and Iridium Concesiones de Infrastructuras S.A.
        (“Iridium”, Spain), belonging to the ACS Group (Spain), intends to acquire within the
        meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the
        whole of a newly created JV (Spain), currently controlled by Iridium (Spain), by way
        of purchase of shares.3
2.      The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
         Hermes: leading specialist investor in global private markets specialising in
             developing bespoke and diversified private equity and infrastructure portfolios on
             behalf of its clients.
         Iridium: active in the development, management and maintenance of concessions.
         The JV: active in the management of concessions in the transport sector and will
             be managing the below concessions:
              -    Eix Diagonal Concessionària de la Generalitat de Catalunya S.A (“Eix
                   Diagonal”, Spain),
              -   Autovía del Pirineo S.A. (“A-21”, Spain),
1       OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’). With effect from 1 December 2009, the Treaty on
        the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) has introduced certain changes, such as the
        replacement of ‘Community’ by ‘Union’ and ‘common market’ by ‘internal market’. The terminology
        of the TFEU will be used throughout this decision.
2       OJ L 1, 3.1.1994, p. 3 (the ‘EEA Agreement’).
3       Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union No C 414, 10.12.2019, p.30.
Commission européenne, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Bruxelles, BELGIQUE
Europese Commissie, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Brussel, BELGIË
Tel: +32 229-91111. Fax: +32 229-64301. E-mail: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu.
 ---pagebreak---         -   Autovía de los Pinares, S.A. (“Aupisa”, Spain),
        -   Concesionaria Santiago-Brión S.A. (“Santiago-Brión”, Spain),
        -   Reus-Alcover Concesionària de la Generalitat de Catalunya S.A. (“Reus-
            Alcover”, Spain),
        -   Autovía de la Mancha S.A. (“Aumancha”, Spain),
        -   Inversora de la Autovía de la Mancha S.A. (“Inversora”, Spain).
3. After examination of the notification, the European Commission has concluded that
   the notified operation falls within the scope of the Merger Regulation and of
   paragraph 5(b) of the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of
   certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.4
4. For the reasons set out in the Notice on a simplified procedure, the European
   Commission has decided not to oppose the notified operation and to declare it
   compatible with the internal market and with the EEA Agreement. This decision is
   adopted in application of Article 6(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation and Article 57 of
   the EEA Agreement.
                                                  For the Commission
                                                  (Signed)
                                                  Cecilio MADERO VILLAREJO
                                                  Acting Director-General
4  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.
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