Authored by Dr. Zhan Hao (zhanhao@anjielaw.com)

A spokeswoman from the Ministry of Commerce publicly declared in the recent, that the Ministry has officially accepted the notification on Nestlé’s acquisition of Hsu Fu Chi. If the Ministry turns on the green light for this filing it could be one of the biggest foreign takeovers of a

The Provisional Measures on Investigating and Penalizing Violation of Notification Obligations for Concentrations of undertakings (hereinafter referred to as “Provisional Measures”) was officially published on 30th December 2011 by MOFCOM and will come into effect on 1st February 2012.

Such regulation has been for a long time called on given that not just a few undertakings often choose to escape MOFCOM’s jurisdiction in the antitrust review on concentrations, which reached the threshold by AML and relevant regulations, thus, has derogated MOFCOM’s enforcement effects.

In pursuance to Article 3 of the Provisional Measures, as expected, MOFCOM is the authority concerned in investigating and penalizing concentrations that are not notified in compliance with the law, and where necessary, provincial commence departments can be commissioned to assist MOFCOM regarding its work.Continue Reading Coming out after a Long Wait

On 2nd March of 2012, MOFCOM publicized another conditional clearance on concentration in the hard disk industry, which comes three months after MOFCOM imposed similar conditions on Seagate’s acquisition of Samsung’s hard drive business. At this time, the concentration parties are Western Digital’s and Viviti Technologies, and the relevant market is defined by MOFCOM as the worldwide market for hard disk drive.Continue Reading Another Conditional Clearance on Hard Disk Industry Concentration

According to the information released by MOFCOM in its news conference at the end of 2011, statistics indicate that in the year of 2011, MOFCOM received 194 notifications for antitrust review on concentration in total, the amount of received cases increased by 43% compared to last year. Among them, the number of accepted cases by

On 12th December 2011, MOFCOM publicly disclosed its decision to clear Samsung and Seagate hard disk deal by imposing several conditions. According to the Asset Purchase Agreement, Seagate Technology intends to acquire control of Samsung Electronics’ hard disk business by purchasing all relevant assets. The acquiring party, Seagate Technology, is a multinational enterprise, engaging in

MOFCOM is getting more and more efficient upon dealing with its own work. Only 10 days after the Alpha V/Savio conditional clearance, MOFCOM imposed conditions on another proposed concentration between General Electric (China)., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as GE China) and China Shenhua Coal to Liquid and Chemical Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as CSCLC) on 10th, November, 2011. It is noticed that GE China/CSCLC is already the NO.2 conditional clearance on concentration only two months after the “Provisional Regulation on the Assessment on the Competitive Effects of Concentration of Undertakings” is officially released in the end of August (hereinafter referred to as “Provisional Regulation”). That to some extent gives people the impression that the Provisional Regulation does not only give administrative counterparts guidance, but also standardized and facilitated MOFCOM’s antitrust reviewing work on concentration in some degree.Continue Reading MOFCOM’s Second Conditional Clearance on Concentration after the Release of its Guidance on Analysis of Competitive Influence

On 31st October 2011, MOFCOM posted the No.73 Notice in its website, announcing to clear proposed concentration between Penelope Co., Ltd and (referred to as “Penelope” hereinafter) and Savio Macchine Tessili S.p.A. (referred to as “Savio” hereinafter) with certain conditions. Without doubt, the reasoning and analytical instruments utilized by MOFCOM would shed some light on of what attitude and approach hold by MOFCOM when facing anti-monopoly review of concentration.

According to MOFCOM’s notice, the proposed acquiring party (Penelope) is established as a tool specifically for the sake of this concentration transaction. Alpha Private Equity Fund V (referred to as “Alpha V” hereinafter) is Penelope’s wholly-owned controlling shareholder (the “parent”), which is a private equity fund and invests in non-ferrous metal recycling, production and sales of home textile and textile machinery. Meanwhile, being the largest shareholder, Alpha V holds 27.9% equity shares of Uster technologies Co., Ltd (referred to as “Uster” hereinafter)

Proposed acquired party in the said concentration (Savio) is a manufacturer of textile machinery, engaging in the production of electronic yarn clearers for winders, twisters and rotor-spinning frames. Beside, Phenanthrene Brothers Co., Ltd (referred to as “Phenanthrene Brothers” hereinafter).is a wholly owned subsidiary of Savio.Continue Reading MOFCOM Announced the Another Conditional Clearance on Concentration

Since the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) promulgated its decision to block the acquisition of Huiyuan Juice Group by The Coca-Cola Company, the decision has been subject to tremendous criticism from trade lawyers and economists. Some have argued China appears willing to wield its Anti-monopoly Law to fend off foreign attempts at buying promising domestic firms (though Huiyuan was incorporated in the Cayman Islands), even when the resulting market concentration would not be excessive.

Continue Reading Coca-Cola & Huiyuan: Explanation, Theory, An attempt to Rationalize?