Below you will find details of some of the types of work undertaken by this team. For further details, please contact us.
Govia
Govia is a joint venture between the UK transport group Go-Ahead and the French transport group Keolis. This matter related to the awarding of the Integrated Kent Rail Franchise to Govia. The award of rail franchises must usually be pre-cleared by the Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”). However, in this case the size of the parties meant that the European Commission had jurisdiction to consider the issue. The Team demonstrated to the European Commission that this matter should be referred to the OFT. Once the OFT accepted jurisdiction, the Team made various submissions in order to establish that clearance should be granted. The clearance was subject to increased time pressures since the European Commission could not begin to consider the issue until the franchise had been formally awarded, meaning the clearance had to be secured quickly, before the franchise “went live”. The transaction was cleared on 28 March 2006.
One NorthEast
The Team has advised on the setting up and operation of a venture capital loan fund by One NorthEast. The fund has been created by One NorthEast to meet a perceived funding gap for small and medium sized enterprises. The fund involves both public money (largely from the European Regional Development Fund) and private investments. The scheme has the potential to represent illegal State aid to the private investors, to the extent that they are treated more favourably than public investors. The scheme also provides State aid to the recipients of the “soft loans”. The Team therefore assessed the State aid, and organised the scheme, to ensure that it was compatible with the Common Market and therefore legal.
This case concerned the purchaser of an important supplier to our client. Our client was concerned about this development since it would give the competitor significant marker power. Also our client has had past and ongoing disputes with the competitor, which led our client to believe that the acquisition would be detrimental to its interests. As a result, the Team was instructed to submit third party comments to the European Commission as part of its Phase I investigation into the acquisition. These comments helped ensure that the acquisition was not cleared at Phase I. The Team has assisted the client in providing comments and information to the case team conducting the Phase II investigation, including a meeting with the case team at the Commission in Brussels.