The average duration of investigations without suspensions was 41 days for ordinary notifications, 28 days for simplified ones, and 23 days for simplified cases without overlaps.
It will soon be eight years since the implementation of merger control for these types of operations. Given these statistics, questions arise as to whether the current system is capturing all the transactions that should be reviewed before their implementation.
The relatively low number of these operations—does it reflect notification thresholds to be too high for Chile, or is it a sign of a stagnant economy with little M&A activity? Should the thresholds be modified to incorporate additional criteria beyond the sales of the merging companies, such as requiring notification of transactions where the deal value or payments between the parties exceed a certain amount? Should acquisitions of shares, social rights, or competitors’ assets be subject to notification even if they do not exceed the sales thresholds? These are important questions to consider after eight years of this system’s operation.
Statistics in the field of merger control during 2024
The FNE recently published its statistics regarding its work in the field of merger control during 2024. Regarding the number of notified operations, the figures remain more or less the same as the previous year (32 in 2024 versus 35 in 2023). There is also other interesting information: in 2024, the FNE did not prohibit any merger operation, and only one investigation was extended to phase 2. Only two operations were approved with conditions.
