Sandd/PostNL merger supported by unions; approval by competition authority could be complicated
The possible merger between the Dutch postal companies PostNL [AMS:PNL] and Sandd has the support of 4 labour unions, the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad reported based on named and unnamed sources. An approval by the Dutch competition authority Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) however may be difficult.
Earlier this week the Dutch government said it will actively support the merger between PostNL and Sandd. The companies themselves seem up for it, because the postal market is shrinking fast and the companies need to take some action to be able to survive.
Four unnamed labour unions have told Mona Keijzer, the state secretary at the ministry of Economic Affairs, that they support the plan and that they believe that a consolidation is the only option to secure the postal service in the coming years, NRC reported.
Problems however may arise with competition authority ACM because the merger would create a company with a 95% market share, meaning that it’s factually a monopolist. ACM is unlikely to be very keen on this, the report noted.
Mona Keijzer said that if the ACM doesn’t want to give the green light for the merger, the Dutch government can overrule the ACM’s decision if the public interest weighs heavier than expected competition obstacles.
The state secretary said that it’s now up to Sandd and PostNL to make the next move and to propose the merger to the ACM.
The Dutch news site NOS reported early this year that PostNL made a turnover of EUR 3.5bn in 2017. Sandd made a turnover of about EUR 195m in the same year, newspaper Algemeen Dagblad noted.
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