The Autorité has given the green light to the acquisition of CarPostal France by Keolis
Keolis notified the Autorité de la concurrence of its planned acquisition of CarPostal France. Following an examination of the effects of this transaction on the urban and interurban public passenger transport markets outside the Île-de-France region, the Autorité de la concurrence has cleared this transaction without conditions.
Parties to the transaction
Keolis is a subsidiary of SNCF, which provides (urban and interurban) passenger transport services in France.
CarPostal France, a subsidiary of the Swiss company CarPostal SA, which is owned by La Poste Suisse SA, is active in the urban and interurban passenger transport sector in France, particularly in the east and south-east.
The planned transaction is not likely to harm competition
The parties are simultaneously active in the public passenger transport market outside the Île-de-France region, more specifically in the urban and interurban passenger transport markets in the départements of Isère, Loire, Saône-et-Loire, Hérault and Bouches-du-Rhône.
Competition in these markets takes place during the response to calls for tenders issued by public authorities (cities, départements, regions), at the national level for the urban public passenger transport market, and at the departmental level for the interurban passenger transport market.
With regard to the urban passenger transport market outside the Île-de-France region, the Autorité de la concurrence noted that Keolis and CarPostal France did not generally apply for the same calls for tender. The Autorité was able to eliminate any risk of harm to competition by taking into account the presence of other competitors, such as Transdev and RATP Dev.
As regards the interurban passenger transport market outside the Île-de-France region, the investigation revealed that the parties exercised competitive pressure between themselves in certain départements, but that the parties had limited market shares. In addition, after an analysis in each département, it appears that competitors, such as Transdev or local operators, are also active on these markets.
As the transaction did not raise competition concerns, the Autorité cleared the transaction without conditions.
Contact(s)
