News
The Competition Council intervenes in OK’s acquisition of Coop Danmark
The Competition Council has approved OK a.m.b.a.’s acquisition of Coop Danmark A/S, including nearly 600 grocery stores and 160 service stations. To ensure that the merger does not impede competition, OK commits to divest and lease out a small number of service stations and stores.
Chairman of the Competition Council, Christian Schultz, says:
The Competition Council has approved OK's acquisition of Coop Danmark. OK acquires, among other things, 598 grocery stores operating under the chain concepts Kvickly, Superbrugsen, Brugsen, and 365discount. Additionally, OK acquires more than 160 OK-stations that Coop Danmark owned and operated before the merger.
The approval follows OK's commitment to divest service stations in Høng, Otterup, and Gedser and to lease out OK Plus-stores in Sunds, Bording, and Elling in connection with the merger. Two of the OK Plus-stores to be leased out are already leased out today, but with the possibility for OK to terminate the agreement. With this commitment, OK agrees to enter into three new lease agreements, which, among other things, must be non-terminable by OK for ten years.
The Competition Council assesses that the divestment and leasing out will ensure that the merger does not significantly impede effective competition in the areas where the merger raised potential competitive concerns.
Since OK early in the process offered commitments to remove potential competitive concerns, it has not been necessary to further investigate the merger's impact on competition in the affected six areas.
For further information
Contact the Head of Communications at the Competition and Consumer Authority, Hanne Arentoft, at +45 41 71 50 98.