Kbb News – The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an inquiry into the recent acquisition of CTD Tiles by Topps Tiles.
Topps Tiles acquired 30 CTD Tiles stores and the business’ intellectual property in August, in a deal worth £9M. The arrangement included ownership of CTD Tiles, CTD Trade and CTD Architectural Tiles, as well as selected stock and intellectual property.
The CMA says it has now served an initial enforcement order (IEO) on Topps Tiles Plc and Tiles4Less Limited, with the launch of an official merger inquiry to follow in the near future.
The IEO means that Topps Tiles will have to delay any further integration of the CTD Tiles business into its own, and that the CTD brand will have to carry on independently until the CMA’s inquiry has closed. IEOs are commonly served by the CMA when it investigates deals which have already completed, such as the recent CTD acquisition.
Following the IEO being served, the CMA will move to formally commence a phase one investigation of the deal, although it has not outlined when this phase is likely to begin.
Phase one CMA investigations look into whether an acquisition or business deal is likely to raise competition concerns. If it believes this to be true, the CMA can then launch a phase two investigation, which investigates whether the deal will likely cause a substantial lessening of competition in the wider market.
Topps Group addressed the CMA inquiry in its latest financial update published earlier this week. The company said it was “actively working” with the CMA during this inquiry process.
In its latest financial results, Topps Tiles admitted it had experienced a slight downturn in its sales figures, blaming a “very challenging” trading environment. Last month, it was also announced that two other companies had agreed to take ownership of 23 further CTD Tiles stores.
source: https://www.kbbreview.com/64996/news/cma-investigating-ctd-tiles-acquisition/
Ultimate Kitchens Blog is a personal blog by me (Jeff Morrison), a retired kitchen designer who likes to muse about all things kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms and Kbb news after 40 years in the Kbb industry but still passionate about it. All opinions are my own.
