21.5.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 184/8

1.

On 12 May 2016, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking CaixaBank SA (‘CaixaBank’, Spain) belonging to the group Fundación Bancaria Caixa d’Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona (Spain) acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of the undertaking Banco BPI (‘BPI’, Portugal) by way of public bid.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for CaixaBank: banking services (retail, corporate, private banking), collective investment and securitisation services as well as the provision of specialised insurance products,

—   for BPI: investment banking (equities, corporate finance and private banking), retail banking, management of investment funds, pension funds and life insurance-capitalisation.

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.8063 — CaixaBank/Banco BPI, to the following address: