PUBLIC VERSION NOTICE SEEKING CLEARANCE FOR A BUSINESS ACQUISITION UNDER SECTION 66 OF THE COMMERCE ACT 1986 17 May 2019 The Registrar Competition Branch Commerce Commission PO Box 2351 Wellington New Zealand
[email protected] Pursuant to section 66(1) of the Commerce Act 1986, notice is hereby given seeking clearance of a proposed business acquisition. BF\59029236\1 | Page 1 PUBLIC VERSION Pursuant to section 66(1) of the Commerce Act 1986, notice is hereby given seeking clearance of a proposed business acquisition (the transaction) in which: (a) Infratil Limited (Infratil) and/or any of its interconnected bodies corporate will acquire shares in a special purpose vehicle (SPV), such shareholding not to exceed 50%; and (b) the SPV and/or any of its interconnected bodies corporate will acquire up to 100% of the shares in Vodafone New Zealand Limited (Vodafone). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND INTRODUCTION 1. This proposed transaction will result in Infratil having an up to 50% interest in Vodafone, in addition to its existing 51% interest in Trustpower Limited (Trustpower). 2. Vodafone provides telecommunications services in New Zealand. 3. Trustpower has historically been primarily a retailer of electricity and gas. In recent years, Trustpower has repositioned itself as a multi-utility retailer. It now also sells fixed broadband and voice services in bundles with its electricity and gas products, with approximately 96,000 broadband connections. Trustpower also recently entered into an arrangement with Spark to offer wireless broadband and mobile services. If Vodafone and Trustpower merged, there would therefore be some limited aggregation in fixed line broadband and voice markets and potentially (in the future) the mobile phone services market.