PE Hub | European Commission's draft merger guidelines: what they mean for PE dealmaking

White & Case partner Michael Engel was recently featured in PE Hub discussing the European Commission's draft merger guidelines and their potential implications for private equity dealmaking.

While the core merger-control test stays the same, the European Commission is widening the lens, adding scale, investment, innovation and resilience to the factors it may weigh when assessing a deal.

Michael noted that for digital, pharma and life sciences deals, in particular, parties should keep an eye on the proposed "innovation shield": a potentially clearer pathway to clearance for acquisitions involving start-ups, small innovative players and R&D-heavy targets.

For private equity investors, the guidelines could create greater scope to demonstrate that transactions deliver benefits through scale, investment, innovation and resilience, rather than just relying on traditional competition arguments. The changes should be seen as creating additional arguments for merging parties, rather than signalling a fundamentally permissive approach to deal approval.

Read the full PE Hub article here (paywalled).

Press contact
For more information please speak to your local media contact.