20.1.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 19/11

1.

On 13 January 2016, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which Comet S.r.l. (Italy), a special purpose acquisition vehicle controlled by CEP IV, a fund managed by affiliates of the entities doing business as the Carlyle Group (Luxembourg), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of the undertaking Comdata S.p.A. (Italy) by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for the Carlyle Group: 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 Comdata: business process outsourcing related to customer relationship management, and in particular customer services, as well as sales and technical support to companies in the telecommunications, media, energy and financial services industry.

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 M.7891 — The Carlyle Group/Comdata), to the following address: