OREANDA-NEWS.  September 26, 2014. Deputy Head of FAS, Andrey Tsyganov, presented the position of the Federal Antimonopoly Service on the issue at a conference of “The Moscow Times” newspaper.

He started that “every year the number of transactions subject to FAS control is decreasing. Ten years ago we received around 6000 pre-merger and 44,000 post-merger petitions. After changes to the antimonopoly law (consecutive introduction of four antimonopoly packages) the figures fell down considerably. To compare, in 2013 FAS and its regional offices considered only 2258 pre-merger petitions (400 from foreign investors) and 1913 post-merger petitions. Refusals reached 1.5%. The trend maintained in the first half of 2014: 807 pre-merger petitions (154 from foreign investors) and only 8 refusals”.

However, if in 2013 buyers focused mainly on companies in trade, catering, domestic services (over 10% of the overall number of petitions), companies operating on the land market and retail (239 petitions), construction (162 petitions), as well as managing companies (160 petitions) and agro-industrial companies (147 petitions), in the first six months of 2014 priority was given to the companies operating on the markets of oil and oil products (104 petitions), machine-building (56 petitions) and the electric power industry (54 petitions).

When the forth antimonopoly package, that is already approved by the Council of the Russian Federation and submitted to the State Duma, comes into force the number of economic concentration transactions subject to FAS control will go down even more considerably due to eliminating the Register of economic entities with over 35% market share. “It means that dozens of thousands legal entities will not need FAS consent to transactions any more”, explained Andrey Tsyganov.

“At the same time, we introduce regulation of joint ventures – concluding agreements on joint activities. However, such regulation will take place only if competitors conclude agreements, the total asset value exceeds 7 billion RUB and the total revenue exceeds 10 billion RUB. This measure will remove joint ventures from possible future claims for FAS ore other competitors”.

In spite of a complicated political situation, western companies continue investing in Russia, and the Government does not prevent it. At the beginning of September the Government Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation approved all transactions put for consideration: American pharmaceutical company “Abbott” buying Russian “Veropharm” OJSC - a leading producer of drugs for treating oncological diseases; German “Blitz F14-206 GmbH” acquiring “GEA Mashimpex” Ltd., which is a strategic company that produces equipment for nuclear plants; and Swiss “Holcim” Ltd., a global manufacturer of construction materials, establishing control over “Lafarge Cement” OJSC.

Statistical data show that in the six years of enforcing the law on foreign investments in strategic companies (No.57-FZ) there were not that many refusals: 169 of 177 petitions were approved.

Legislative changes related to establishing the Eurasian Economic Union also will not affect the issues of mergers and acquisitions since they shall remain under control of the national authorities.

In conclusion, Andrey Tsyganov emphasized the openness and transparency of FAS policy on the issue. All petitions from legal persons as well as decisions of the antimonopoly bodies issued upon the results of their consideration are put in the single, publically-accessible FAS database, formed to execute the Road Map for developing competition and improving the antimonopoly law.