ACCC denies NAB/AMP merger talk
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has scotched media reports today that National Australia Bank (NAB) has approached it regarding a possible takeover ofAMP.
“Contrary to media reports this morning, the ACCC has not had recent contact with NAB in relation to this matter,” the competition watchdog’s chairman Graeme Samuel says.
Samuel toldMoney Managementtoday that the only recent contact the ACCC has had with NAB were two phone calls - one, a courtesy call the day before it took an increased holding in AMP and another today, when NAB chief executive Frank Cicutto called him to “negate” media reports implying merger talks had occurred.
“It’s pretty hard to say something about nothing,” Samuel says but felt he had to clarify the situation, given that Cicutto’s comments yesterday indicated the bank was of the understanding the ACCC was unlikely to oppose a merger of it and AMP, and fuelling media reports that a merger was now highly probable.
Cicutto, commenting in a report document yesterday, said, “We believe that the ACCC requirements will not be a key issue, and we certainly wouldn't be going ahead if we thought it would be a material impediment to the process.”
However according to Samuel, “Should an acquisition proposal be brought forward it would be dealt with in the normal manner, i.e. considered under Section 50 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.”
“Section 50 prohibits mergers or acquisitions which would have the effect or be likely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a substantial market for goods and services,” Samuel says.
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