Germany's Federal Cartel Office said Monday it sticks to its assessment that the country's gasoline market is dominated by a few companies, and said mergers and takeovers in the gas stations sector will only be allowed under strict conditions.
Germany
's
Federal Cartel Office said Monday it sticks to its assessment that the
country's gasoline market is dominated by a few companies, and said mergers and
takeovers in the gas stations sector will only be allowed under strict
conditions.
"The Federal Cartel Office still thinks that the vertically integrated oil
companies Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RSDA), BP PLC (BP), ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM),
ConocoPhillips (COP) and Total SA (TOT) for a [market] dominant oligopoly on
regional filling station markets," the antitrust authority said in an
emailed statement.
Cartel office President Andreas Mundt said takeovers and acquisitions of gas
station sites will continue to be granted only under conditions, to "avert
a further concentration of the market."
The cartel office's comments come after Austrian oil and gas company OMV AG
(OMV.VI) last months said it will sell 59 filling stations in eastern
Germany
to
Poland
's PKN
Orlen SA (PKN.WA) after the antitrust authority had opposed a sale to
France
's
Total.
The cartel office blocked Total's purchase of the OMV filling stations in April
2009, saying it would have given Total and the four other companies an
unacceptable market dominant position.
The cartel office's ruling had subsequently been overturned by a regional
court, which disagreed with the regulator's view. The antitrust authority
appealed, prompting OMV to sell the filling stations to PKN Orlen to avert a
lengthy legal dispute.
In a separate deal, Shell's German unit earlier this month acquired 41 filling
stations from German retailer Edeka, fewer than previously intended after the
cartel office had opposed the original plan on competition grounds.
The cartel office also Monday said it expects to present the findings of a
comprehensive sector probe of the gasoline market, which was launched in 2008,
at the end of January. In a preliminary report in June 2009 the cartel office
had criticized inadequate competition on the German gasoline market.
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