31.10.2015   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 362/17

1.

On 23 October 2015, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which CEP IV Garden Sàrl, a special purpose acquisition vehicle controlled by funds managed by affiliates of the Carlyle Group (‘Carlyle’, Luxembourg), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of PA Consulting Group Ltd (‘PA Consulting’, United Kingdom) by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for Carlyle: managing funds that invest globally across four investment disciplines: (i) Corporate Private Equity (buyout and growth capital); (ii) Real Assets (real estate, infrastructure and energy and renewable resources); (iii) Global Market Strategies (structured credit, mezzanine, distressed, hedge funds, and middle market debt); and (iv) Solutions (private equity fund of funds program and related co-investment and secondary activities),

—   for PA Consulting: providing a wide range of management consultancy services to senior management in different industries in both the public and the private sector. PA has its headquarters in London and offices in the Americas, Europe, the Nordics, the Gulf and wider Middle East and North Africa region and Asia Pacific.

3.

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 this Notice.

4.

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. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number M.7789 — The Carlyle Group/PA Consulting, to the following address: