IGOR ARTEMIEV: BRICS COOPERATION IS A MOST POWERFUL TOOL TO WORK WITH MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Cooperation with Brazil Administrative Council on Economic Security enabled FAS to reach significant results considering “Bayer – Monsanto” merger

On 17 May 2018, Head of FAS Igor Artemiev held talks with President of Brazil Administrative Council on Economic Security (CADE), Alexandre Barreto de Souza and General Superintendent, Alexandre Cordeiro.

Igor Artemiev shared with his Brazilian colleagues Russian experience of approving “Bayer – Monsanto” merger.

He emphasized the importance of cooperation with BRICS antimonopoly bodies, particularly, CADE, in the course of the merger investigation.

“Our cooperation with regard to of mergers and acquisitions should be, first of all, in the interests of our states”, pointed out Igor Artemiev. “BRICS occupies 46% of the sales markets in the world. It is a most powerful tool for additional opportunities for our countries.  It is exactly through cooperation between BRICS antimonopoly bodies that we were able to get such a result for “Bayer и Monsanto” merger.

Igor Artemiev proposed to form BRICS Expert Centre in Moscow for cooperation of antimonopoly bodies. No costs and long intra-state financial approvals will be required from other BRICS countries.

The formation of the Centre will be funded by High School of Economics – Russian Research University.

“The Centre will watch large mergers and acquisitions on an ongoing basis and prepare its proposals”, explainedHead of FAS.“Special attention should be paid to IT-markets. The Centre will not have many staff members. Apart from specialists of the antimonopoly body we plan to engage scholars from top universities. Each country will decide undependably about participating in the project”.

Head of FAS asked CADE to give proposals regarding the concept of the Centre.

The parties also discussed cooperation under UNCTAD umbrella (UNCTAD Discussion Group on international cooperation).

Mr. Artemiev asked CADE to be a co-sponsor of the project on the Toolkit for cooperation between competition authorities.

“Co-sponsorship means supporting discussions of the initiative by UNCTASD Intergovernmental Expert Group. It does not imply any financial or other obligations”, clarified Igor Artemiev.

The parties agreed to continue close cooperation with regard to mergers and acquisitions as well as particular cases in other sectors.