Today, Tabcorp Holdings revealed that it has applied to be authorised by the Australian Competition Tribunal to proceed with its proposed merger of Tabcorp and Tatts Group.
The combination of the two companies is expected to have a beneficial impact on their stakeholders, including the Australian racing industry. Since the transaction has been officially announced, Tabcorp has been focused on informing its investors of the process.
The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tabcorp David Attenborough commented on the announcement, saying that at the time of the extensive discussions with the company’s stakeholders since the above-mentioned announcement had been made, the proposed combination with Tatts Group had received the support of the entire board. Mr. Attenborough also explained that it was a company’s belief that the merger authorisation process would help it increase its Transaction certainty.
According to him, such a step would enable public benefits, especially in case that the company’s stable funding relationship with the racing industry was taken into account.
As revealed by Tabcorp in a special press release published on its official website today, a great number of stakeholders supported the Transaction and the benefits that are considered to be ongoing with it. That is exactly the reason why the company has decided that it was important for it to seek its merger to be authorised by the Australian Competition Tribunal.
The latter is engaged in making sure that the balance between the public benefits and the eventual harms, including the ones associated with competition, is kept over the authorisation test. On the other hand, the test applied by the ACCC is only limited to making an assessment if an eventual acquisition is possible to harm the competition in the region and does not take into consideration any public benefits that could offset the negative effects of the process.
As a result of the merger, Transaction certainty is expected to be delivered. The application of the company lodged to the Tribunal is to be backed with considerable evidence gathered from a large number of industry participants and experts in the field, including shareholders, venue partners, customers, representatives of the racing industry as well as the broader community.
- Author
Olivia Cole
