Arcelik - Whirlpool deal approved by UK

The antitrust regulatory authority in Great Britain authorized, last week, the transaction by which the Turkish manufacturer of household appliances Arcelik will take over the business of Whirlpool Corp. from Europe, reports Reuters.

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the deal between the two companies was unlikely to lessen competition in the home appliances market, including washing machines, dishwashers and cookers.

The deal, which sees Whirlpool and Arcelik's European businesses integrated into a new company, was approved by EU antitrust regulators in October. The community executive informed, at that time: "The European Commission has come to the conclusion that the transaction does not raise competition issues, taking into account in particular the presence of alternative suppliers in the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), where both parties are active".

American appliance maker Whirlpool announced last year that it would divest significant parts of its EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) business and form a new entity with Arcelik Turkey, which will focus on Europe, according to Reuters. It will bring together Whirlpool's main home appliance businesses in Europe and Arcelik's operations in small and large home appliances, consumer electronics and air conditioning.

Whirlpool will own 25% of the new entity, while Arcelik will have a 75% stake. The agreement between the parties includes Whirlpool's 38 European subsidiaries and nine production units in Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Great Britain, as well as Arcelik's two factories in Romania, as well as 25 European subsidiaries of the Turkish manufacturer.

In our country, Arcelik owns a refrigerator factory in Găesti and a washing machine factory in Ulmi, both in Dâmboviţa county.

The annual production capacity of the new company will be around 24 million household appliances, and the number of employees will exceed 20,000. The unit will manufacture, sell and provide after-sales services for all brands of the two giants, including Grundig, Arctic, Flavel, Indesit, Beko. After divesting its entire Middle East and Africa business to Arcelik, Whirlpool will retain the EMEA KitchenAid small appliances business.