PH antitrust body clears Paris airport operator’s acquisition

Logo of Philippine Competition Commission from PCC’s official website

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The country’s antitrust body has greenlighted a Paris airport operator’s acquisition of shares from another airport operator.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC), in a statement dated August 18, 2020 and released on their official website, said they cleared Aéroports de Paris’ (AdP) acquisition of a 49-percent stake of India-based GMR Airports Ltd. (GMR).

GMR is the co-operator of Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) while AdP is the brand of Groupe AdP which operates all airports in Paris, France.

PCC said the AdP’s acquisition of stakes would ‘not likely result in a substantial lessening of competition’ here in the Philippines.

They also cited two reasons behind such justification.

“There exists no horizontal overlap between the parties in the market for the operation and management of Philippine airports,” read portions of PCC’s statement.

“The markets for the award of airport operation and management concession and provision of technical services are likely global in scope and there are sufficient number of market participants that will pose competitive constraint to the merging parties,” they added.

The document was signed by PCC chairperson Arsenio Balisacan, and Commissioners Johannes Benjamin Bernabe, Amabelle Asuncion, Macario De Claro Jr., and Emerson Aquende.

GMR formed a consortium together with engineering conglomerate Megawide Construction Corporation, called GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC), to develop and operate MCIA, the country’s second-busiest airport.

The consortium was also named as the newest lead project proponent for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City, Metro Manila. /dbs

READ MORE: MCIA consortium to take over NAIA rehab