The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Gardiner on 2016-09-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the company annual turnover threshold is for government intervention to block any sale or transfer of the ownership of critical infrastructure; on what occasions that threshold has been crossed; and if he will make a statement.
Margot James
My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is able to intervene on public interest grounds in transactions which are subject to merger control either within the UK or at the EU level. The turnover thresholds for such public interest interventions depend upon which of the two relevant competition bodies has jurisdiction.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has jurisdiction to review mergers and takeovers when:
– the annual UK turnover of the target business exceeds £70 million, or
– the merger creates a 25%, or greater, share in a market in the UK.
The European Commission has jurisdiction to review mergers and takeovers when:
– the combined aggregate worldwide turnover (in the preceding financial year) of all the undertakings concerned exceeds EUR5,000 million; and
– the aggregate EU-wide turnover of each of at least two of the undertakings concerned exceeds EUR 250 million; or
– the aggregate worldwide turnover of all the undertakings concerned is more than EUR 2,500 million; and
– the aggregate turnover of all the undertakings in each of at least three member states is more than EUR 100 million;
– in each of the same three member states, the aggregate turnover of each of at least two of the undertakings involved is more than EUR 25 million; and
– the aggregate EU-wide turnover of each of at least two of the undertakings involved is more than EUR 100 million.
Unless each of the undertakings concerned achieves more than two-thirds of its aggregate EU-wide turnover within a single Member State (then the Commission does not have jurisdiction).
If none of these jurisdictional thresholds is met, the Secretary of State can still intervene in defence industry mergers, if at least one of the enterprises concerned is a relevant government contractor; or where the merger involves a supplier or suppliers of at least 25% of any description of newspapers or broadcasting in the UK.
In all cases, public interest interventions can only be made on the grounds of national security, financial stability (or prudential rules in an EU case) or media plurality.
The number of times the CMA’s jurisdiction thresholds are met is not recorded. The European Commission does not record merger notifications by country of transaction.