Competition watchdogs on both sides of the Irish Sea will extend their investigation of Stena's planned €70 million acquisition of P&O's Dublin-Liverpool and Larne-Fleetwood services, and P&O's decision to close its Dublin-Mostyn service.
In a statement yesterday, the Irish Competition Authority said it planned to carry out a "phase two" investigation of the deals between the pair, because a month-long preliminary investigation failed to determine if it will substantially lessen competition for ferry services.
The authority added that the UK Competition Commission planned to carry out a similar inquiry of the ferry operators' deals under British competition legislation.
The Competition Authority's statement said the investigation would specifically look at their competitive impact on both freight and passenger services on the Irish Sea. Its move means the authority cannot clear the transactions until March 5th, 2004.
Stena agreed to acquire the two services last May. The parties informed the Competition Authority last month, at which point it began its initial investigation.
The mergers and acquisitions provisions of the Competition Act, 2002 oblige the authority to investigate deals on the scale of the P&O/Stena transaction.
It has up to one month to carry out the preliminary investigation. If it cannot determine the impact of an agreement on competition after that time, it has to begin a three-month phase two probe.
