Friday 17 November 2017

Take-away-over

Just Eat's takeover of rival Hungryhouse has been officially given the green light by the competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ruled in its final decision that the deal - worth up to £240m - does not raise competition concerns, given the rise of new entrants such as Deliveroo, UberEATS and Amazon. Just Eat welcomed the announcement and said it now expects to complete the takeover on 31 January. Also last week Tesco's £3.7bn takeover of food wholesaler Booker has been provisionally cleared by the UK's competition regulator. Booker is the UK's largest food wholesaler, and also owns the Premier, Budgens and Londis store brands. More than 30% of its sales are to the catering sector, which Tesco does not supply, although the supermarket is keen to get a foothold in the market. The CMA concluded that the wholesale market would "remain competitive in the longer term", because Booker's share of the UK grocery wholesaling market, at less than 20%, "was not sufficient to justify the longer-term concerns".