1.   

On 26 January 2026, 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:

—	EP EQUITY INVESTMENT S.À.R.L. (‘EPEI’, Luxembourg), controlled by Mr Daniel Křetínský,

—	AURES Holdings a.s. (‘Aures’, Czechia), controlled by Automotive Retail Systems N.V.

EPEI will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of Aures.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:

—

EPEI is an investment company focusing on investments in various business areas such as food, wholesale in the cash & carry format, retail sale of daily consumer goods, acquisition and management of media assets, publication of magazines, postal and delivering services, e-commerce, wholesale and retail of electronics and other non-food products, as well as the video gaming sector,

—	Aures is active in the retail of used cars and other related activities such as car rental, leasing, insurance and other ancillary services in the Central and Eastern European region.

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

4.   

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed concentration 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.12293 – EPEI / AURES HOLDINGS

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