The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has delayed handing down its decision on the proposed sale of Count Financial (Count) to Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
In a statement on the ACCC website, the competition regulator has asked the banking group to provide extra information on the deal.
“ACCC requested further information from CBA. ACCC timeline suspended pending further information from CBA,” the statement said.
“Former proposed date for announcement of ACCC findings of 3 November 2011 delayed. ACCC will announce a new proposed decision date upon receipt of further information from CBA.”
A spokesperson from CBA said the banking group was working on meeting the ACCC’s request.
“We’ve received the ACCC’s request and are currently working through that process,” they said.
Despite the ACCC’s delay, analysts do not believe it will affect the process of the sale.
“This is a normal process. The ACCC takes a highly consultative approach in a lot of these matters and often they will look at an initial proposal for a merger, take submissions and then come to a view and seek undertakings from one or both of the parties involved in the merger that would facilitate that merger,” CMC Markets chief market strategist Michael McCarthy said.
“Obviously we don’t know if that’s the situation but we’ve certainly seen that happen in previous ACCC merger deliberations. . . I don’t think this is knocking the deal on the head in any way.”
Morningstar analyst David Walker said: “The ACCC’s perspective is how much does this concentrate the advice and distribution business, so they are certainly entitled to have a look at it. It leads to quite a large increase in the number of advisers CBA has from 1220 to more than 1850, and that’s what the ACCC is going to look at.”
Walker also said the ACCC’s request for further information is in line with its usual procedures.
“A deal of this size requires approval from the competition regulator, and it is completely normal for them to request more information from the parties so they can ascertain the implications for competition in the relevant markets,” he said.
Both McCarthy and Walker said the ACCC’s decision had not affected Count’s share price.
CBA made its $373 million takeover offer for Count in August.
