German Competition Authority clears acquisition of Coop by Rewe subject to conditions | Progresiv
The German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt) has cleared the acquisition of the northern German food retailer Coop eG, Kiel, by REWE Markt GmbH, Cologne, subject to conditions. 
Coop operates around 200 supermarkets in the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania, Brandenburg and Hamburg under the brand name "Sky". In 2015 Coop achieved a turnover of 1.23 billion euros. Rewe is the second largest food retailer in Germany. In 2015 it turned over approx. 36 billion euros. The Rewe group operates around 6,000 supermarkets throughout the country. Rewe plans to acquire at least a 55% share in Supermärkte Nord Vertriebs GmbH & Co. KG i.G., Kiel into which the Coop supermarkets will be incorporated.
Andreas Mundt, President of Bundeskartellamt: "We have closely looked at all the relevant regions and assessed whether local consumers will still have sufficient shopping alternatives after the takeover. The acquisition of the Coop supermarkets by Rewe would have impeded competition in eight regional markets and two districts of Hamburg. Already during the proceedings Rewe and Coop sold eleven branches in the regional markets affected to the Bartels Langness group, a competitively independent SME, in order to address these competition problems."
In the Rewe/Coop merger case the Bundeskartellamt applied the same examination criteria as in theEdeka/Tengelmann merger case. On the sales side the authority examined in detail 45 regional market areas in northern Germany. These were mainly rural areas. In addition, in the case of Hamburg, a market analysis was conducted based on seven municipal districts. The authority's investigations showed that the takeover would have restricted competition in the following regions: Boizenburg, Husum, Ludwigslust, Nauen, Röbel, Schwarzenbek, Schwerin and Wittenburg and in the Hamburg districts Nord and Harburg.
In the view of the Bundeskartellamt, REWE's takeover of Coop will not result in a significant impediment of effective competition on the procurement markets; i.e. in the relationship between the retailers and their suppliers. The main reason for this asssessment was that Coop's own procurement volume amounts to less than 0.5% of the total procurement volume of the German food retail sector. For almost ten years Rewe and Coop have been members of a purchasing cooperation through which Coop purchases 65-70% of its products. Even before the merger Coop was therefore not an independent competitor of Rewe on the procurement side and did not represent a genuine alternative for suppliers. (www.bundeskartellamt.de)
