Today the Ukrainian Parliament passed the law that increases and reformats merger control clearance criteria.

The financial thresholds will be increased and amended as follows:

• as of the end of the last financial year, the total annual turnover or total assets in Ukraine of each of at least two concentration participants exceeds EUR 4 million while the combined parties' worldwide assets or turnover exceeds EUR 30 million; OR
• as of the end of the last financial year, the total annual turnover or total

assets in Ukraine of the target company or at least one founder of a newly formed entity exceeds EUR 8 million on a group level while the worldwide annual turnover of at least one other concentration participant exceeds EUR 150 million.

The market share test (35%) for merger clearance will not apply any more.

The review will need to be completed within 25 calendar days for the transactions where:

• only one party is active in Ukraine, or
• the parties' combined market shares do not exceed:
  • 15% on the overlapping markets; or
  • 20% on the markets, where products, necessary for business activity of any party, are sold.

It will also be possible to engage in formal consultations with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the "AMC") regarding the scope of information to be submitted and defects to be eliminated in the submission. It is now clearly stated in the law that failure to provide information about beneficial owners of the participants will result in the AMC’s rejection to consider  the  application.

The law introduced the 30 calendar day period (extendable) for offering remedies. The filing fees are increased by four times.

The law now has to be signed by the President and will come into force two months after its publication in the official press (expected: April 2016).
KEY ISSUES
Merger review efficiency will be improvedThe merger notification thresholds will be increased

CONTACTS

If you would like to know more about the subject covered in this alert, please  contact:

Yevheniy Deyneko   +38044 337 7007

Ulyana Khromyak

+380 44 337 7007

To email one of the above, please use firstname.lastname@everl egal.com.ua