18.2.2017   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 52/7

1.

On 13 February 2017, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which funds managed by Advent International Corporation (‘Advent’, USA) and funds managed by Bain Capital Investors L.L.C. (‘Bain Capital’, USA) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of Concardis GmbH (‘Concardis’, Germany) by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for Advent: private equity investment in various sectors, including industrial, retail, media, communications, information technology, internet, healthcare and pharmaceuticals;

—   for Bain Capital: private equity investment in companies across most industries, including information technology, healthcare, retail and consumer products, communications, financial and industrial/manufacturing;

—   for Concardis: supply of merchant acquiring services, primarily to customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Concardis also has some limited activities as a network service provider in Germany for transaction routing of German national debit schemes (Girocard and ELV).

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 the 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.8386 — Advent/Bain Capital/Concardis, to the following address: