CADE rebukes Alesat purchase by Ipiranga unanimously

The Administrative Council for economic Defense (Cade) failed on Wednesday, 2, Alesat network by shopping Ipiranga, Ultra group. All Board members voted against the operation. It was the second case in point the Council barred this year-in June, Cade failed purchase of Statius by Kroton.
Ipiranga has announced the purchase of the fuel stations network Ale in June last year, by $2.17 billion. As the associated press/Broadcast anticipated, the possibility of rejection has always been considered by sources who follow the case.
The rapporteur John Paul Resende voted against the operation for understanding that the only remedy that would ensure competition in the fuel market after the merger would be the full sale of the operations of Ale in 12 States, what not interested companies. "The only possibility would be to alienate all the relevant assets of troubled markets Alesat," he said.
The other Councillors showed occasional disagreements, but everyone voted to stop the merger. "It''s not any operation that must be approved by Cade. Moreover, in addition to remedies need to be great need to be effective or with easy monitoring, "said Cristiane Adviser Alkmin.
If the restriction suggested by the Rapporteur was followed, Ipiranga would have to sell 65% of the operations of Ale, which, according to Raj, not interested companies during attempts to deal with the Council. On Monday, 31, the companies submitted a counter-proposal of agreement, which the Rapporteur considered insufficient to remedy competitive risks. According to him, the focus of the text was the resale, and no distribution, which evaluated to be the most problematic Resende. For the rapporteur, would be innocuous sale only of distribution contracts, as proposed, companies without selling posts resellers.
For Ipiranga''s lawyer, Barbara Rosenberg, the company proposed a "strong agreement" to the Council and that it would be "the most radical, interventionist agreement in the history of the Cade". "Goes far beyond the concerns of the Cade, but we decided to propose to reach consensus," he said.
At the beginning of the trial, the lawyer Mario André de Cabral, Manguinhos refinery-competitor of Ale and Ipiranga-argued that the operation was rejected. He stated that the deal is a risk to the white flag, since the Alesat has as part of your business strategy the provision of fuel to these posts.
"The Alesat has national brand presence and established reputation, being shaped in different market, with prices more aggressive and more flexible contracts. If approved, the levels of rivalry in the market certainly will be affected, "he said.
In June, the rapporteur John Paul Resende had asked for the extension of the process to have more time to analyze remedies proposed by the applicants. Since then, Cade and the parties came to an agreement trading, which was not achieved.
In February this year, the General Superintendence of the Cade took a hard look about the operation in which concluded that could result in elevation of prices of fuels in distribution and resale, due to an increase in market power of the Ipiranga. With that, he sent the case analysis for the plenary of the Cade, which is who is the final word.
In your opinion, the analyzed that only four brands are able to compete nationally, including the Ipiranga and the Ale, besides Petrobras and Raízen. "In this way, the operation would result in reducing the number of national brands from four to three in an already concentrated market environment," he says.
The opinion pointed out that there are several local and regional distributors that are limited to the fringe of the market or the local streams. "Only national distributors, working with large scale and wide access to the infrastructure, they can access a level of interregional competition and establish strong retail flags," he said.
The vote, however, the rapporteur has done the analysis considering State markets, as defending businesses. Still understood by business disapproval.