Robinsons Retail cleared to buy Rustans Supercenter
Competition regulators have approved Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.’s bid to take control of grocery retailer Rustan Supercenters, Inc.
In a decision dated August 16, the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said the transaction, announced last March, would “not result in substantial lessening of competition in the relevant market.”
“There is no ability and incentives to engage in foreclosure post acquisition and there are sufficient competitive constraints remaining fro other market participants post transaction,” the PCC added.
Gokongwei-owned Robinsons Retail operates a total of 154 branches of Robinsons Supermarket, Robinsons Selections, Robinsons Easymart and Jaynith Supermarkets across the country.
Rustan Supercenters, meanwhile, is engaged in grocery retailing and is known to operate 75 branches of Marketplace by Rustan’s, Rustan’s Supermarkets, Shopwise, Shopwise Express and Wellcome in the Philippines.
Under the P18-billion transaction, Robinsons Retail will acquire all of Rustan Supercenters’ issue and outstanding capital via a share for share swap that will involve 191,489,360 shares of the former.
In announcing the deal last March, Robinsons Retail said it was looking to acquire Mulgrave Corp. B.V.’s 100-percent stake in Rustan Supercenters, Inc.
Mulgrave is a unit of the Dairy Farm International Holdings, Ltd. group of companies and Robinsons Retail said the deal, once consummated, would lead to a partnership “to build a leading food retail business.”
“Certain members” of the Gokongwei family will also sell some of their shares, Robinsons Retail said, which would lead to the Gokongweis owning 51 percent of the company’s expanded capital.
Through Mulgrave, Dairy Farm will end up owning 18.25 percent of Robinsons Retail.
The deal had to be approved by the PCC, which is mandated to review mergers and acquisitions worth at least P2 billion to ensure that these do not harm consumer interests.
Since the PCC’s establishment, it has received 153 notifications with a combined worth of 2.41 trillion pesos.
The Robinsons Retail-Rustans Supercenter acquisition was the 144th transaction approved by the commission.
Anna Leah E. Gonzales
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