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No Action Letter for retirement residence acquisition

By  |  April 11, 2012

On April 10, 2012, the Canadian Competition Bureau issued a No Action Letter to Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT and Health Care REIT for their acquisition of certain Maestro Retirement Residences. The deal calls for Chartwell and Health Care to acquire Maestro residences in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. The No Action Letter was issued after the Bureau reviewed the retirement residence markets in those geographic areas. The Bureau found that Independent Supportive Living programs and Assisted Living programs are largely substitutable, which helps mitigate post-merger exercises of market power. The Bureau also found a sufficient “level of effective remaining competition, low barriers to entry by new players and expansion by existing ones, and high vacancy rates in many overlap markets.” 

Full content: Competition Bureau Press Release