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MERGERS: AMO SR approved the merger of undertakings AGEL SK a.s. and Faculty Hospital with Polyclinic Skalica, a.s.

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On 3 November 2020 the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic, the Division of Concentrations, (hereafter "the Office") approved a merger grounded in the acquisition of direct exclusive control of the undertaking AGEL SK a.s., Bratislava (hereafter “Agel SK” or “Notifier”) over the undertaking Faculty Hospital with Polyclinic Skalica, a.s., Skalica (hereafter  "Skalica Hospital").
 
The main activity of the undertaking Agel SK and companies belonging to its economic group is the provision of health care in the territory of the Slovak Republic. It provides inpatient health care (hereafter "IHC"), ambulant health care (hereafter "AHC"), medical care (hereafter "MC"), joint examination and treatment units (hereafter "JEaTU"), transport health service (hereafter "THS") and labour health service (hereafter "LHS"). In addition, it acts as the supplier of medical material.
 
The acquired undertaking Skalica Hospital provides health care in the territory of the Slovak Republic, namely IHC, AHC, JEaTU, MC, THS and LHS.
 
The Office identified that the activities of the merging parties overlap horizontally in the area of providing IHC, AHC, JEaTU, MC, THS and LHS. There is also a vertical interlink between the parties, namely in relation to the supplies of medical material.
                                                                           
In order to assess the existence of overlaps in the area of providing IHC and AHC and for the needs of identifying geographically relevant markets, the Office relied on the locations of activity of IHC and AHC providers of the Notifier and Skalica Hospital, as well as on the fact, whether and to what extent patients migrate between them. From the information concerned, the Office came to the conclusion that there came to no geographical overlap of the merging parties activities in the area of providing IHC and AHC neither to the migration of patients between Skalica Hospital and Agel SK hospitals, and therefore there was no reason for the Office to assess the horizontal effects of the merger concerned in these areas in more details.
 
In the area of  ​providing JEeTU, MC and THS there is a horizontal overlap between the activities of merging parties in terms of goods, but their activities do not overlap in terms of space.

In providing LHS, from the horizontal point of view, there comes to a product overlap as well as to a spatial overlap between the activities of merging parties, however, with respect to the market structure in this area, there was no reason for the Office to assess the horizontal effects of the merger concerned in more details.
 
In assessing possible vertical effects of the merger concerned on the conditions of competition the Office relied mainly on the scope of supplies, which the Notifier supplies to Skalica Hospital and it came to the conclusion that the vertical interlink does not raise competition concerns in terms of the restriction of access to inputs or the restriction of access to customers.
   
After evaluating documentation and information submitted, the Office came to the conclusion that the merger assessed does not significantly impede effective competition on relevant markets, in particular as the result of creation or strengthening of dominant position and approved the merger.
 
The decision came into force on 12 November 2020.