23.4.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 144/21

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case M.7877 — Warburg Pincus/General Atlantic/UniCredit/Santander/SAM/Pioneer)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2016/C 144/10)

1.

On 15 April 2016, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which affiliates of Warburg Pincus LLC (‘Warburg Pincus’, United States), General Atlantic LLC (‘General Atlantic’, United States), Banco Santander, S.A., (‘Santander’, Spain) and UniCredit S.p.A. (‘UniCredit’, Italy) combine the asset management business of SAM Investment Holdings Limited (‘SAM’) and Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. (together with its subsidiaries, but excluding Pioneer Investment Management USA Inc. and its US subsidiaries as well as certain of its other subsidiaries (‘Pioneer’)), in a full function joint venture controlled by Warburg Pincus, General Atlantic, Santander and UniCredit. SAM is currently a joint venture between Santander and affiliates of Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic. Pioneer is currently solely controlled by UniCredit.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

Warburg Pincus is a global private equity firm, active through its portfolio companies in a variety of sectors, including energy, financial services, healthcare and consumer, industrial and business services, and technology, media and telecommunications;

—

General Atlantic is a private equity firm, active through its portfolio companies in a variety of sectors, including business services, retail and consumer, financial services, healthcare, internet and technology;

—

Santander is the parent company of an international group of banking and financial companies operating mainly in Europe, the US, and Latin America;

—

UniCredit is the Italian parent company of a banking group providing banking and financial services in Italy and abroad;

—

SAM is an asset management business with operations in 10 countries, both across Europe and Latin America;

—

Pioneer is an asset management business with operations across Europe and in several non-European countries.

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.

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 e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number M.7877 — Warburg Pincus/General Atlantic/UniCredit/Santander/SAM/Pioneer, to the following 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’).