CRA advised parties to the merger of Hammerson and Grand Central Shopping Centre, two adjoining shopping centers in Birmingham. The CMA cleared the merger unconditionally at Phase 1, finding other retailers in Birmingham City Centre would provide sufficient competitive restraint post-merger. CRA economists provided economic assistance to support the merger, including an analysis of the two-sided (tenants and shoppers) nature of the market and the design of a customer survey. CRA’s team was led by Alan Overd and included Vicki Mertzanidou and Angelos Stenimachitis.
Pivotality: A sound new theory of harm in horizontal mergers?
In its review of the Novelist/Aleris merger, the European Commission relied upon a novel pivotality theory of harm, where pivotality indicates that competitors...