ABP and Linden have announced that their proposed joint venture with Slaney comes under the remit of the EU for merger control assessment. The relevant national authorities will be involved in the process.

The proposed deal involves ABP taking over the Allen family share of the Slaney business which includes the cattle abattoir and boning factory in Bunclody, Co Wexford, and Irish Country Meats, which processes 40% of Irish lamb and the rendering facility at Bunclody.

Currently the Slaney business is operated as a joint venture between the Allen family and Linden Foods, the Northern Ireland-based meat processor which is owned by Fane Valley Co-op.

Proposed deal

The proposed deal would see ABP step in to acquire the half of the business currently owned by the Allen family and then continue to operate the business jointly with Linden.

It has met with universal opposition from all the farming organisations, who believe it damages competition for livestock. The companies reject this view, with Paul Finnerty of ABP saying: “There has been considerable speculation about this joint venture. However, consolidation within the industry is absolutely necessary in order for our sector to remain competitive.

“This consolidation trend is the result of an increasingly challenging international background where we compete against global players, many of whom have processing capacity multiple times that of the entire Irish industry.”

What happens now?

In her weekly legal column on page 30, Aisling Meehan examines the process of how a proposed takeover is assessed and adjudicated.

It is notable that of the typical 300 cases investigated by the EU each year, 90% are given approval after the first stage of investigation without any action.

In the event that there are issues that merit further investigation, a phase II investigation is a more in-depth analysis of the implications of a proposed merger or acquisition and there will be one of three outcomes – approval to proceed, approval to proceed with conditions or total rejection.