Britain's competition watchdog said the acquisition of Wincanton by US-based warehousing firm GXO Logistics, for £762 million (€908.24 million), could reduce competition and raise prices for customers.
The Competition and Markets Authority said GXO and Wincanton compete closely, particularly for contracts with large retail customers, and the regulator was concerned the merger could reduce competition, resulting in higher costs being passed down to consumers.
The deal was completed in April - the CMA had launched its investigation in early September.
'Reviewing The Decision'
'We are reviewing the decision and will continue to engage constructively and collaboratively with the CMA to secure a positive outcome,' GXO told Reuters.
Earlier this year, GXO outbid CEVA Logistics with a 605 pence per share offer for Wincanton, a company that operates in about 160 locations in the UK and Ireland and is involved in e-commerce, groceries and non-food retail.
Customers of Wincanton include major supermarket operators such as Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Asda.
GXO has five working days to submit proposals to address CMA's concerns.
DSV, Schenker Acquisition
Elsewhere, Denmark's DSV has raised $5.5 billion (€4.99 billion) in a shareissue to partially finance its acquisition of Schenker, a deal that would make it the world's biggest logistics company.
In September, DSV agreed to buy Schenker, the logistics arm of German state rail operator Deutsche Bahn, for €14.3 billion ($15.76 billion).
New shares were sold at DKK 1,410.5 each, in line with Thursday's stock market close, raising DKK 37.3 billion (€5 billion), equivalent to 12.3% of its market value of some DKK 300 billion (€40.2 billion), DSV said in a statement.
