Merger control laws in the making

Laws to oversee mergers is expected to be tabled in June, said Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail in an exclusive with English daily, The Star.

“Hopefully we can table it by June. It is currently about 80% complete.

“There are (still) some areas that need tweaking so that everybody is happy,” its chief executive officer Iskandar Ismail said.

The new law would be introduced through amendments to the Competition Act 2010.

Companies that intend to merge would be required to go through MyCC and the value of mergers must cross certain threshold in the range of hundred of millions.

At present, Malaysia is the only South East Asian nation without a merger control law.

“We will analyse the proposed merger once they submit their application, in which they need to explain the reasons behind the merger and its impact on the relevant markets.

“We may also approve it without conditions or reject it altogether.

“It will impact all enterprises as long as it crosses the threshold,” he said.

Once implemented, the law would allow MyCC to approve without any conditions if it does not affect the market.

Alternately MyCC would approve with conditions.

New law has proactive approach, complements other pillars

Approvals would be rejected if the merger causes considerable reduction of competition.

The overall objective of the proposed law is to ensure that there is no reduction of competition in the market.

The lessening of competition could be due to cartels or monopolies that can cause unnecessary concentration in the market.

The new law would have a proactive approach in complementing the two pillars in Competition Act – prohibition of cartels and the prohibition of abusive monopolies or dominant players.

The only sectors that would be exempted from this law are the telecommunications and multimedia sector, water sector, and the aviation sector

Those sectors have their own regulators in the Malaysian Multimedia and Competition Commission, National Water Commission and the Malaysian Aviation Commission.