Thai Group Gets Antitrust OK For $11B Tesco Buy

Charoen Pokphand Group won the Thai antitrust agency’s approval for its $10.6 billion acquisition of British retailer Tesco Plc’s local retail business with some conditions, reported Yahoo.

Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont’s CP Group is barred from other modern-retailing mergers for three years, excluding e-commerce, Thailand’s Office of Trade Competition Commission said Friday, while clearing the deal announced almost eight months ago.

CP Group will gain control of a network of about 2,000 hypermarket and grocery stores across Thailand. The ruling didn’t mention a smaller number of stores in Malaysia, which is part of the agreement with the British retailer.

The agency’s approval marks the exit of Tesco’s 22-year-presence in Thailand under the Tesco Lotus brand and cements CP Group’s position as the nation’s dominant retailer. Dhanin, whose family ranked the world’s 13th richest in a Bloomberg report, will be adding Tesco’s supermarkets to his empire, which also includes one of the world’s biggest 7-Eleven convenience-store networks and the domestic operations of cash-and-carry specialist Siam Makro Pcl.

The deal will result in “increased market power but not a monopoly,” the agency said in a statement. “The deal may significantly lower competition but won’t create major damage to economy nor consumers’ benefits.”