Prior notification of a concentration

(Case M.11223 – PAI PARTNERS/INFRA GROUP)

Candidate case for simplified procedure

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2023/C 315/06)

On 24 August 2023, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	PAI Partners SAS (France), (‘PAI Partners’),

—	We Connect Infra NV (Belgium) (‘Infra Group’).

PAI Partners will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of Infra Group.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:

—	PAI Partners is a European private equity firm which manages funds investing in companies active in the following sectors: business services, food & consumer, general industrials, and healthcare. PAI Partners is also the parent company of, inter alia,

—	M Group Services (‘MGS’), a company providing infrastructure, data and other services to the regulated utilities, telecom and transport sectors;

—

Apleona, a real estate service company that mainly provides facility management services, in particular technical facility management (e.g., building operation and maintenance, energy management), infrastructural facility management (e.g., cleaning, catering, security) and commercial facility management (e.g., property management, billing, contract management); and

—

Apave, a company active in the field of technical, environmental, human and digital risk management. As part of its business, Apave offers a full range of services related to testing, technical inspection, technical construction inspection and certification (‘TIC services’). More marginally, it offers professional consulting and training services also related to risk management,

—

Infra Group is a multi-disciplinary network infrastructure works provider (electricity, water & sewage, gas & district heating, telecom, earthmoving, industry, and public lighting). It offers a full range of services from design, engineering and installation to maintenance of infrastructure networks. Infra Group is active in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:

M.11223 – PAI PARTNERS/INFRA GROUP

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

(1) OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).

(2) OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.