ComCom grants clearance for Infratil to acquire shares in Vodafone

The Commerce Commission has granted clearance for Infratil Limited to acquire up to 50% of the shares in Vodafone New Zealand Limited.

Infratil is an investment company whose current interests include a 51% share of Trustpower Limited.

Infratil submitted that Vodafone and Trustpower would continue to operate as independent companies. While the Commission accepts this is likely, its analysis of the proposed acquisition was based on the conservative assumption that the businesses of Trustpower and Vodafone could be combined.

In reaching its decision, the Commission focused on the possible impact of the proposed acquisition in the national markets for the retail supply of broadband and mobile services.

Chair Anna Rawlings said the Commission was satisfied Infratil's proposed shareholding in both Vodafone and Trustpower would not substantially lessen competition in any of the markets it assessed.

"While Trustpower has in the past been an aggressive competitor in residential broadband, with a particular focus on energy and broadband bundles, several other multi-utility providers have similarly emerged including Vocus, Nova Energy and Contact Energy. 2Degrees and Stuff are also competing effectively in the residential broadband market alongside Spark and MyRepublic," Rawlings said.

"As it stands, Vodafone and Trustpower are not each other's closest competitors and even in regions where they would hold high market shares, such as Bay of Plenty and Wellington, they will continue to face effective competition from several other national operators.

"Consistent with the mobile market study preliminary findings, we consider competition in mobile markets is generally driven by the three network operators and is therefore unlikely to be affected by Infratil's acquisition. For these reasons, we are satisfied that the proposed transaction should be granted clearance.

A public version of the written reasons for the decision will be available on the Commission's case register in the near future.