The National Australia Bank Limited (NAB) sought to acquire the Australian consumer business of Citigroup Australia Pty Limited (Citi). They applied for informal clearance of the proposed acquisition from the ACCC. The ACCC’s investigation focused in particular on the white-label business of Citi and whether NAB would have an incentive post-acquisition to damage this business which competed with its own-label cards.
Frontier Economics was retained by lawyers of the parties to assess these incentives and write a report which was submitted to the ACCC. The ACCC announced today that it would not oppose the acquisition.
Frontier Economics advises clients on a range of competition and dispute support matters.
