Alpha acquisition gets OK
01 January 2000
The Government has given the green light to Alpha Airports' £14m acquisition of British Airways' in-flight catering business at Gatwick.
Following advice from the director-general of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Stephen Byers has decided that the merger does not raise any competition issues that would need to be referred to the Competition Commission.
The OFT is obliged to study the impact on competition of all mergers where the company being taken over has assets of £70m or more, or where the merged business would take 25% or more of the market. Alpha Airports says it has a 40% share of the UK market for in-flight catering.
