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BANGKOK: Thailand’s competition regulator gave the go-ahead for British retail giant Tesco to sell its supermarket businesses to the Charoen Pokphand Group, despite monopoly concerns.
The $ 10.6 billion sale to Thailand’s largest conglomerate was first marked in March and also covers Tesco’s operations in Malaysia.
“Most of the commissioners agreed that the merger of those companies (could create) dominance of the market … but it is not a monopoly,” the Competition Commission of the Office of Commerce of Thailand said in a statement on Friday. .
The regulator said CP Group cannot pursue other retail merger deals over the next three years.
The president of the Association of Retailers and Wholesalers of Thailand, Somchai Pornrattanacharoen, who was on the regulator’s investigative committee, publicly expressed concern last month that the deal would give the CP Group a monopoly, according to local media.
It’s kind of a boomerang sale: Tesco has nearly 2,000 grocery stores in Thailand that it bought from CP Group during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998.
The Chearavanont family and their patriarch Dhanin, who control CP Group, are worth an estimated $ 27.3 billion and top the list of 27 Thai billionaires, according to Forbes.
Tesco said in a statement that it was waiting for the CP Group to receive a formal regulatory approval notice and that it will make a new announcement when appropriate.
CP Group, which has interests spanning food, telecommunications and high-speed trains, has not commented on the regulator’s decision.
