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Statement Of Preliminary Issues Released For Kinetic / NZ Bus
The Commerce Commission has published a Statement of
Preliminary Issues relating to the clearance application for
Kinetic NZ Holdings Ltd (Kinetic) to acquire 100% of the
issued share capital of NZB Holdco Limited (NZ Bus) and its
subsidiaries.
The Statement outlines the key competition issues that the Commission currently considers important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance to the proposed acquisition.
The Commission invites interested parties to provide comments on the likely competitive effects of the proposed acquisition. Submissions can be sent by email to registrar@comcom.govt.nz with the reference ‘Kinetic/NZ Bus’ in the subject line. Parties should provide a public version of their submission at the same time for publication on the Commission’s case register. Any submissions should be received by close of business on 27 May 2022.
The Commission is currently scheduled to make a decision on the application by 15 June 2022. However, this date may be extended as the investigation progresses.
The Statement of Preliminary Issues and a public version of the application can be found on the Commission’s case register.
Background
Kinetic
operates bus and coach services in New Zealand and
Australia, including Go Bus urban bus and school bus
services across New Zealand, and SkyBus airport transfer
services at Auckland Airport.
NZ Bus provides urban bus and coach services in Auckland, Wellington and Tauranga and is majority owned by investment funds managed by Next Capital Pty Limited, an Australian private equity firm.
Kinetic says that it and NZ Bus currently only overlap in the supply of urban bus services, with the only geographic overlap being in the Auckland region.
We will give clearance to a proposed merger if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.
Further information explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on our website.
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