Consiliul Concurenţei, the Romanian competition council, is likely to ask Mega Image to sell fewer than 100 stores, in order to approve the acquisition of Profi Rom Food, according to media reports.
Mega Image may need to sell stores where its network overlaps with Profi Rom Food, such as in Bucharest, Cluj and Timișoara, online publication Economedia.ro reported, citing Bogdan Chiriţoiu, president of the Consiliului Concurenţei.
The competition authority will not intervene in areas where there are only Profi Rom Food stores, the report noted.
The announcement came after the competition council raised concerns over the suppliers’ situation in the two networks and the areas where both retailers operate stores.
Mega Image has pledged to include clear rules for suppliers to join and leave the Mega Image/Profi Rom Food network, and a fair and unbiased assessment of products, based on quality and safety standards.
The Deal
Chiriţoiu added that the Ahold Delhaize subsidiary had proposed to sell some of the stores that it will acquire.
Should the deal go through, there would be a concentration of Mega Image stores in areas where the two networks overlap.
Therefore, selling some stores in those areas will enable enough diversity.
Overlaps are not very likely across the country, as Mega Image only operates in a few cities.
‘We will not intervene in the areas where there is only the Profi network, but in those areas where we have both Mega Image and Profi, and by cumulation we would have reached a situation with too many stores,’ the report read, citing Chiriţoiu.
Profi Rom Food and Mega Image, combined, will have around 2,600 stores across Romania.
