On Tuesday, May 10th, 2022, the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) in plenary, by its decision 776/2022 unanimously approved, pursuant to Art. 8(3) of Greek Law 3959/2011, the proposed transaction notified on 4/3/2022, concerning the acquisition by MASOUTIS of control over SYNKA. The acquisition concerned SYNKA’s business in the wholesale and retail supply of consumer goods (supermarket sector) consisting, inter alia, of the acquisition of supermarket stores, in retail and wholesale, business partnerships, contractual relationships, real estate and other assets. In addition, MASOUTIS will acquire joint control with SYN.KA CRETE over two local radio and television stations in Crete.

Pursuant to the above decision, the HCC found that the proposed concentration, which concerns the supermarket retail supply of consumer goods (distribution market), the procurement market, the wholesale supply of consumer goods, the television news market and the non-media radio market does not raise any serious doubts as to its compatibility with the competition rules in the relevant markets concerned. 

In particular, in the retail supply of consumer goods (distribution market) the HCC examined the prefecture of Chania, and the islands of Chios, Corfu, Thira and Naxos, estimating the market shares at local level (10 minute drive in urban areas/ 30 minute drive in suburban areas) in order to investigate the conditions of competition at the local level. The assessment took into account the new entity's overall market share, the increment, competitors’ market shares and the fact that local supermarket chains are also active in the relevant markets and therefore there is a variety of business models catering to consumer needs.