The Office of Fair Trading announced that the future acquisition by Cable and Wireless plc of Chelys Ltd, the parent company of the Energis Group, will not be referred to its competition commission.
The parties overlap in the supply of various telecommunications services in the UK to business customers. The principal third party concerns, and the UK consumer watchdog’s primary focus, related to the supply of telecoms network capacity to phone companies that offer consumers an alternative to BT, a practice referred to as the supply of wholesale indirect access services to carrier pre-selection retailers.
‘The OFT has carefully evaluated third party concerns against all the evidence,” said Vincent Smith, director of competition enforcement at OFT. “We do not believe that Cable & Wireless could impose higher post-merger prices on CPS customers, because of the number of credible competitors to which CPS retailers can turn to supply them with wholesale services.”