Thai antitrust regulator approves CP Group deal for Thai Tesco stores

[snoop1130]

Thai antitrust regulator approves CP Group deal for Thai Tesco stores

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat

 

FILE PHOTO: A company logo is pictured outside a Tesco supermarket in Altrincham northern England, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's antitrust regulator said on Friday it had approved CP Group's deal to buy Tesco PLC's retail stores in the country.

 

The merger was not considered a monopoly, the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) said, without giving further details.

 

Tesco said earlier this year it had agreed to sell its supermarket businesses in Thailand and Malaysia to Charoen Pokphand Group for an enterprise value of $10.6 billion.

 

Britain's biggest retailer has nearly 2,000 Thai retail outlets, many of which it bought from CP Group during the 1997-8 Asian financial crisis.

 

The latest proposed change of ownership follows a tussle between three of Thailand's most famous retail billionaires. Dhanin Chearavanont's CP Group runs its 12,000 7-Eleven convenience stores through CP All and about 80 cash-and-carry stores under Siam Makro.

 

CP Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesco noted the antitrust regulator's statement and said it was waiting for CP Group to receive the formal regulatory approval notice from the OTCC.

 

Lawyers and analysts said earlier this year there was a possibility the regulator could block the transaction should it find it would create a monopoly or market dominance.

 

The OTCC's approval on Friday came with conditions that CP Group could not strike another retail merger deal over the next three years.

 

It also carried stipulations that information about suppliers not be shared between CP's stores and that products from small- and medium-sized firms see higher sales over the next five years via the outlets under the group's control.

 

Tesco had been expecting to complete the sale of its Thailand and Malaysia businesses this year.

 

Its new chief executive, Ken Murphy, last month said there were no plans for further retrenchment from overseas markets.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-06

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Flying Saucage]

A powerful quasi-monopolist takes over one of the few competitors left, to become even stronger. With this, it becomes nothing but a monopoly.

 

I doubt that such a deal would be allowed by the untitrust regulators of any other country which is not a banana republic.

[kickstart]

Looks like the straw that broke the camel's back ,both my locale Tesco's one a big one, has run out of Tesco's tea ,no more now for sure.

Going to have to buy it from the UK ,looked at Barry's tea from Ireland ,but 30 GBP for DHL to send to Thailand...... 

[mark131v]

37 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

The merger was not considered a monopoly, the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) said, without giving further details

 

This the same CP that's one of the 5 richest families in Thailand, convenient eh and certainly not a monopoly...

[mark131v]

40 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

Dhanin Chearavanont's CP Group runs its 12,000 7-Eleven convenience stores through CP All and about 80 cash-and-carry stores under Siam Makro

 

Nope certainly no chance of a monopoly now he also owns all the Tesco stores as well, nope nothing to see here....

[NanLaew]

Good fit I would say. The owners of the 7-eleven convenience chain and the quasi-wholesale cash-and-carry Makro stores now has a full-blown supermarket plus the 'Express' chain. Now if they can ditch Tesco-Lotus's rubbish management, overwhelmingly inferior product line (compared with Big C) and drop the increasingly limited and quite worthless Tesco imports, they should do alright.

Edited November 6, 2020 by NanLaew

[mark131v]

7 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Good fit I would say. The owners of the 7-eleven convenience chain and the quasi-wholesale cash-and-carry Makro stores now has a full-blown supermarket plus the 'Express' chain. Now if they can ditch Tesco-Lotus's rubbish management, overwhelmingly inferior product line (compared with Big C) and drop the increasingly limited and quite worthless Tesco imports, they should do alright.

 

Yes I am sure they will do very well indeed!!

 

Yep they can now decide to charge whatever they like, what prices they should pay the suppliers and seeing as they are pretty much the only show in town it's a case of take it or leave it

 

They will be able to write their profits in advance seeing as there is nobody to compete with, yep I am sure they will do very well out of it, the customers and suppliers probably not so much...

[Artisi]

54 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

Good fit I would say. The owners of the 7-eleven convenience chain and the quasi-wholesale cash-and-carry Makro stores now has a full-blown supermarket plus the 'Express' chain. Now if they can ditch Tesco-Lotus's rubbish management, overwhelmingly inferior product line (compared with Big C) and drop the increasingly limited and quite worthless Tesco imports, they should do alright.

What do you mean, the TESCO coarse cut marmalade is great.... 

Although you are probably right about the useless management - highlighted on many occasions when the three economy packs of xxxx are more expensive than buying 3 single items. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by Artisi

[madmitch]

2 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Good fit I would say. The owners of the 7-eleven convenience chain and the quasi-wholesale cash-and-carry Makro stores now has a full-blown supermarket plus the 'Express' chain. Now if they can ditch Tesco-Lotus's rubbish management, overwhelmingly inferior product line (compared with Big C) and drop the increasingly limited and quite worthless Tesco imports, they should do alright.

Be careful what you wish for. Tesco does cater to the foreign trade to an extent and many of the Tesco Finest range are available and are very good.

 

Compare it to the extremely limited foreign selection in Makro and 7-Eleven.

 

On another point I have no idea why they have an antitrust regulator in the hub of monopolies!

[greeneking]

3 hours ago, mark131v said:

 

This the same CP that's one of the 5 richest families in Thailand, convenient eh and certainly not a monopoly...

The CP Group traces its beginnings to Chinese brothers who arrived in 1921 and built up agricultural interests before expanding into nearly everything.  I believe Prayuth is reported to have made a great deal to sell land to them for far more than it was worth.

And China is doing very well here.

[jackinthebox]

So not too many competitors left then- BigC, Tops, FamilyMart and MaxValu. Anything else? Carrefour and Jusco quit business in thailand long time ago.

[sammieuk1]

Astounding what would constitute a monopoly? when you find a satangs difference over just about everything you buy and a woeful selection of products at stupid prices it's all about control profit and to hell with the consumer antitrust alright ????

[Chassa]

8 hours ago, madmitch said:

Be careful what you wish for. Tesco does cater to the foreign trade to an extent and many of the Tesco Finest range are available and are very good.

Our local Tesco has ditched most foreign goods, over the past couple of years. I got some bargains as they disposed of the last of them!

[herfiehandbag]

Why is there only one monopolies commission (Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC)?

[Susco]

2 hours ago, Chassa said:

Our local Tesco has ditched most foreign goods, over the past couple of years. I got some bargains as they disposed of the last of them!

I guess the main cause for that is that since they were in waiting for the approval of the agreed deal, they not gonna import new stock anymore.

 

It has to be seen what the agreement is between CP and Tesco in carrying Tesco products in the future.

[newatthis]

13 hours ago, kickstart said:

Looks like the straw that broke the camel's back ,both my locale Tesco's one a big one, has run out of Tesco's tea ,no more now for sure.

Going to have to buy it from the UK ,looked at Barry's tea from Ireland ,but 30 GBP for DHL to send to Thailand...... 

and, out here, trying to find a decent biscuit to have with your cuppa tea is near impossible. Those Jack and Jill  and Oreo are too sweet. Thank goodness, there's Lazada and Shopee.

[transam]

11 hours ago, madmitch said:

Be careful what you wish for. Tesco does cater to the foreign trade to an extent and many of the Tesco Finest range are available and are very good.

 

Compare it to the extremely limited foreign selection in Makro and 7-Eleven.

 

On another point I have no idea why they have an antitrust regulator in the hub of monopolies!

But Makro has HP sauce.......????

[Lemonltr]

It's now a total monopoly. The UK has a very similar size population but has Tesco, Asda, (Walmart owned) Sainsbury, Morrisons, Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl. Smaller but national operators Iceland and the Co-op. Not sure if Safeway still exist. May have missed some. Expansion restricted on a local basis too. 

[tomazbodner]

6 hours ago, jackinthebox said:

So not too many competitors left then- BigC, Tops, FamilyMart and MaxValu. Anything else? Carrefour and Jusco quit business in thailand long time ago.

Missed Home Fresh Mart from The Mall. Central Food Hall probably belongs to Tops anyway, or rather Tops might belong to Central. Then there's Donki and Fuji (but that's small and for Japanese in Bangkok only). Then there's Foodland. I know there are several in Bangkok and at least one in Pattaya. Not sure about other places. There could be more, especially if comparing with FamilyMart - there's surely SPAR that would fit in same category. Seen several around Bangkok but they just arrived a couple of years back.

[Bangkok Barry]

16 hours ago, kickstart said:

looked at Barry's tea from Ireland ,but 30 GBP for DHL to send to Thailand...... 

 

I have several times bought Barry's Tea on-line, boxes of 80 bags, and the total cost including postage was a little over 7 Euros. Twinings, on the other hand, did want to charge over 20 GBP for 100 bags.
Having said that, I see that now they (Barry's) are only using DHS and not regular post, probably because of the covid situation. If/when the world returns to normal, check again. I buy the Master Blend which is so strong I can use each bag twice. Tea in Thailand is ridiculously expensive, even Liptons, which is the tea equivalent of McDonalds - available everywhere but not very good.

Meanwhile, I have a source for Typhoo 100s for 200 baht which is pretty good.

[Peterphuket]

I'm waiting for the Lidl and the Aldi to come to Thailand.....what??

Yes, yes I know, I can wait until.....

[Peterphuket]

1 hour ago, tomazbodner said:

Missed Home Fresh Mart from The Mall. Central Food Hall probably belongs to Tops anyway, or rather Tops might belong to Central. Then there's Donki and Fuji (but that's small and for Japanese in Bangkok only). Then there's Foodland. I know there are several in Bangkok and at least one in Pattaya. Not sure about other places. There could be more, especially if comparing with FamilyMart - there's surely SPAR that would fit in same category. Seen several around Bangkok but they just arrived a couple of years back.

I wonder, is the Spar German owned? Than there is hope.

[hotchilli]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The merger was not considered a monopoly, the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) said, without giving further details.

 

[holy cow cm]

OMG. How could they let the CP Chinese communist party members buy Tesco? They already own Makro, 7-11 and Big C. This is a full travesty and complete take over of all markets..

[NanLaew]

16 hours ago, mark131v said:

 

Yes I am sure they will do very well indeed!!

 

Yep they can now decide to charge whatever they like, what prices they should pay the suppliers and seeing as they are pretty much the only show in town it's a case of take it or leave it

 

They will be able to write their profits in advance seeing as there is nobody to compete with, yep I am sure they will do very well out of it, the customers and suppliers probably not so much...

 

I take it you don't have any Family Marts, Big C and Mini Big C's in your neck of the woods?

Edited November 7, 2020 by NanLaew

[NanLaew]

3 hours ago, transam said:

But Makro has HP sauce.......????

And our Makro has Wattie's tinned spaghetti.

 

(And so does our Big C and our Villa)

 

Udon Thani... it's the (only) other farang gourmands paradise.

[NanLaew]

2 hours ago, Lemonltr said:

It's now a total monopoly. The UK has a very similar size population but has Tesco, Asda, (Walmart owned) Sainsbury, Morrisons, Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl. Smaller but national operators Iceland and the Co-op. Not sure if Safeway still exist. May have missed some. Expansion restricted on a local basis too. 

Tesco-Lotus's import line from Tesco UK has been rapidly diminishing for maybe five years already. Meanwhile Central/Tops have managed to keep a decent supply of Waitrose UK products and Villa has been importing Iceland UK stuff.

 

In Udon Thani, the import-specific aisles and product stands at Tesco-Lotus disappeared and any remnants are ratholed among the local produce. Meanwhile, the main Big C has managed to keep a well--stocked, separate import aisle which always has specials as stuff gets within 3-months of sell-by dates. Both Tops and Villa are good alternatives as well with the former recently doubling in size. Even the 'premium' lines at Villa can yield half-price, BOGOF and buy-2-get-one-free offers... just waiting for the Miracle Whip to fall into that category.

[Rancid]

Corporations rule the world, just like in dystopian sci fi movies. Of course its a monopoly, but see they have to wait 3 years before they can buy Big C. That won't be a monopoly either, just a well leveraged market positioning.

[tomazbodner]

3 hours ago, Peterphuket said:

I wonder, is the Spar German owned? Than there is hope.

Dutch, if it hasn't moved recently. Last I checked, HQ was in Amsterdam.

[connda]

On 11/6/2020 at 7:53 PM, snoop1130 said:

The merger was not considered a monopoly, the Office of Trade Competition Commission (OTCC) said, without giving further details.

????