The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued a Statement of Issues on the proposed acquisition of Goodman Fielder Limited’s commercial edible fats and oils business by Cargill Australia Ltd.

The Statement of Issues seeks further information on certain competition issues which have arisen from the ACCC’s market inquiries to date.

Goodman Fielder is the largest supplier of refined edible oils and fats in Australia, while Cargill is the third largest supplier.  According to the ACCC one issues that may raise concerns requiring further analysis is that the proposed acquisition will result in a significant increase in the level of concentration at the refining level of the industry. The merged firm will account for over half of total refining capacity and output.
The ACCC is still seeking further information to verify the market shares of each of the parties and their competitors in relation to each of the relevant markets.  The ACCC estimates that the merged firm will have at least half of the market share in each of the markets of concern.

The ACCC invites further submissions from the market in response to the Statement of Issues by 4 March 2010. As a result, the ACCC’s indicative decision date will be deferred until 18 March 2010.

Submissions can be sent by email to the ACCC at: mergers@accc.gov.au.

The Statement of Issues will be available on the public merger register page on the ACCC’s website, www.accc.gov.au/mergersregister.

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