At the end of April earlier this year we posted a news item to say that Joseph Ash Galvanizing was potentially making a new acquisition. Regrettably, our agreed acquisition of fellow-galvanizer W. Corbett & Co is not now going ahead.
We were aware that there was a risk of the CMA objecting to the idea, and possibly forcing us to sell the company on at a loss, so we put our cards clearly on the table and made our contract to buy the company conditional upon obtaining the CMA’s approval.
We then made an application to the CMA, furnishing them with a great deal of relevant information. The CMA analysed the data and made its own enquiries in the marketplace. Their criteria is that they do not want to see any risk that competition might diminish as a result of a merger and eventually sadly concluded that this was the case here.
Nevermind, we will just have to keep growing our market share by providing the best quality and service available.
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