Reuters: Mergers News: UPDATE 1-Court nixes Quinenco bid for Terpel Chile assets

Reuters: Mergers News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Court nixes Quinenco bid for Terpel Chile assets Apr 27th 2012, 17:49 Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:49pm EDT SANTIAGO, April 27 (Reuters) - Chile's antitrust regulator, TDLC, said on Friday it rejected a bid by Quinenco SA - the holding company controlled by the Luksic family - to buy local assets owned by fuel company Terpel, citing the risk of higher prices due to lack of competition. Quinenco, which controls Enex, Chile's No. 2 gasoline distributor, said last year it planned to buy all of Terpel's assets in Chile for around $320 million. "The operation ... risks increasing prices due to lower competition and coordinated behavior," the watchdog said in a statement. "The tribunal considers it beneficial to competition that, in this oligopolistic industry ... the highest possible number of independent, rival companies be maintained." Chilean industrial conglomerate Copec had said it would sell Terpel's operations in Chile after buying the Colombian company in December. Terpel's operations in Chile include 200 gas stations and 97 convenience stores, according to Quinenco. The TDLC regulator added that Copec was still obliged to sell its local Terpel assets. The Luksic family also has an indirect stake in Banco de Chile, the country's No. 2 bank, and is involved in copper manufacturing through Madeco SA and in mining via Antofagasta Minerals. The regulator ordered two local pharmacies in January to pay record fines of about $19 million each for fixing the prices of more than 200 drugs. It also imposed 11 mitigation measures on LAN Airlines SA's takeover of TAM SA to create one of the world's largest carriers. Quinenco shares were trading 1.42 percent higher on Friday afternoon, while the shares in Copec were 0.51 percent down. Santiago's blue-chip IPSA stock index was broadly flat, trading 0.07 percent higher. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions