The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has given her consent to take control over Polkomtel by Spartan Capital Holdings. The conducted analysis revealed the intended transaction shall not result in restriction of competition

The Office instituted the antimonopoly proceedings on 21 July this year. Spartan Capital Holdings notified the intention of taking control over Polkomtel, the mobile telephony operator. The acquiring entity belongs to the capital group controlled by Zygmunt Solorz-Żak, the owner of, inter alia, the following media and telecommunication companies operating on the market: Cyfrowy Polsat, Aero2, Mobyland, and CenterNet. Additionally, the group is active on the banking, pension funds, insurance and film production markets – all thanks to the activity of Telewizja Polsat, Invest Bank and PTE Polsat. Polkomtel, the entity to be acquired, is the Plus network operator and one of four main providers of  mobile telephony services in Poland.

The agreement between the acquiring entity and the previous operator’s shareholders provided the basis for notifying the transaction to UOKiK. On this ground Spartan Capital Holdings will take control over Polkomtel and its subsidiaries.

According to information provided in the application, the major objective of the intended transaction is the expansion of the broadband acceess to the fourth generation Internet in Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. The applicant is in possession of modern technologies of this scope whereas Polkomtel has the infrastructure and clients’ data base which allows the development of fast network of data transmission. As the combined turnover of participants to the transaction exceeded the equivalent of EUR 50 mln in the territory of Poland, it required the consent issued by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. Under the law, when conducting the proceedings concerning the concentration of undertakings, the Office may issue a consent, impose strictly specified conditions on the merging entities, or prohibit the concentration.

The conducted analysis of the national market of telecommunication services providers’ has indicated that the intended concentration shall not result in a significant restriction of competition. Consequently, the President of UOKiK decided that Spartan Capital Holdings may take control over Polkomtel, including its subsidiaries. When assessing the impact of intended concentration, the Office examined opinions of other mobile telephony operators and the market regulatory authority, the Office of Electronic Communications. The conducted antimonopoly proceedings identified no threat to the restriction of competition regarding any aspects of the merging entities’ activity, in particular: providing mobile telephony services, access to the broadband mobile Internet as well as frequencies of their operation.

The aim of all proceedings regarding the control of undertakings’ concentration, which are carried out by the President of the Office, is the elimination of risk concerning the prospective significant restriction of competition as a result of the intended merger or acquisition. In 2011 the President of the Office granted as much as 121 consents to transactions. The average timelimit for conducting proceedings regarding decisions allowing for concentration is 57 days.

Decisions granting the consent to implement the concentration shall expire if the transaction has not been perfomed within 2 years of its issuance. The information on all antimonopoly proceedings regarding concentration, which were conducted by the Office, is available at the Office’s website.

Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Tel. +48 22 827 28 92, 55 60 314, 55 60 430
faks +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: malgorzata.cieloch@uokik.gov.pl