{"id":64900,"date":"2015-12-02T15:01:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T15:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=f49f71486a9a3b6827d4545b4cdfb44f"},"modified":"2015-12-02T15:01:01","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T15:01:01","slug":"news-story-cma-looks-in-detail-at-office-space-merger-remedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=64900","title":{"rendered":"News story: CMA looks in detail at office space merger remedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Last month the Competition and Markets Authority (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/office-space-merger-prompts-cma-concerns-in-central-london\">announced<\/a> that it would refer the acquisition for an in-depth investigation unless <abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr> plc (<abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr>) offered acceptable undertakings to address its concerns.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"Avanta Serviced Office Group plc\">Avanta<\/abbr> Serviced Office Group plc (<abbr title=\"Avanta Serviced Office Group plc\">Avanta<\/abbr>) both supply serviced office space in central London and Reading. Serviced offices provide centrally managed, fitted and furnished space for businesses to occupy on a ready-to-go basis.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> had said that the acquisition could lead to higher prices and\/or a reduction in choice and quality for customers of serviced office space in the Hammersmith, Victoria, Canary Wharf\/Docklands, Euston\/King\u2019s Cross and Paddington areas of central London.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, <abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr> has offered to sell the <abbr title=\"Avanta Serviced Office Group plc\">Avanta<\/abbr> centres located in the areas concerned to a suitable purchaser (or purchasers). <abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr> has also offered a behavioural undertaking in relation to the Hammersmith centre, in the event that the landlord decides to terminate <abbr title=\"Avanta Serviced Office Group plc\">Avanta<\/abbr>\u2019s lease early and a suitable buyer therefore cannot be found for that centre. The behavioural undertaking would limit <abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr>\u2019 ability to raise prices or reduce quality at the Hammersmith centre until the lease terminates.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has decided that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered by <abbr title=\"Regus plc\">Regus<\/abbr>, or a modified version of them, might be accepted in lieu of a reference to a phase 2 investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> now has until 1 February 2016 to consider whether to accept the undertakings, or a modified version of them. It can extend this deadline if there are special reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n<p>As part of this process, the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> will undertake a public consultation on whether the proposed undertakings are sufficient to address the competition concerns. If the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> does not accept the undertakings, it will refer the acquisition for a phase 2 merger investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Please see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/regus-group-avanta-serviced-office-group-merger-inquiry\">case page<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regus has proposed a remedy to address competition concerns in relation to its completed acquisition of Avanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}