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UK: Watchdog clears Touchstone-IP Group merger

By  |  October 17, 2017

The UK Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) on Tuesday, October 17, said it has opted not to refer IP Group PLC’s takeover of Touchstone Innovations PLC to an in-depth Phase 2 probe.

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    IP Group noted the clearance, and said that following this, the offer timetable has now been “unfrozen”. This means that the date by which an offer must be declared unconditional will now fall on November 9.

    The CMA had launched an investigation to assess whether the deal would result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services.

    IP Group made an offer for early-stage technology investment company Touchstone in July, offering 2.2178 new IP Group shares for each Touchstone share, having originally offered 2.1575 shares in the new IP Group in exchange for each Touchstone share.

    Under the deal, Touchstone shareholders would own approximately 34% of the new combined group, with IP Group shareholders owning the remaining 66%.

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