Bundeskartellamt clears takeover of Cleanaway by Sulo subject to conditions

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared the takeover of Cleanaway Deutschland Holding GmbH (“Cleanaway”) by Sulo GmbH (“Sulo”) subject to conditions. At the request of the companies concerned the merger project was referred from the Commission to the Bundeskartellamt for examination, although the total turnover involved exceeds the 5 billion threshold, because it affects almost exclusively German markets.

Sulo is a joint venture of the Blackstone Group and Apax Partners. The shares in Cleanaway are currently held by the Brambles company group (Australia/U.K.).

Both Sulo and Cleanaway are active in all of the major German waste disposal markets. The merger would have created competition problems in several markets. It would have strengthened dominant market positions already existing in regional markets in Hesse (for the collection and transport of residual waste, waste paper, recovered glass and light-weight packaging and for the sorting of light-weight packaging), in Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland (for the collection of residual waste and light-weight packaging and for the sorting of light-weight packaging) and in Saxony (for the collection and transport of residual waste). Even before the merger these markets where characterized by dominant positions as the leading suppliers in these markets jointly hold very high market shares, in some cases more than 50 per cent, whereas the market shares of their competitors, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, are considerably lower.