Pact Group Pty Ltd - acquisition of business and assets of Signum Specialities Pty Ltd

Summary

A Pact Group subsidiary, Summit Manufacturing, has acquired the business and assets of Signum Specialities Pty Ltd.

Market definition

The ACCC considered the likely effects of the acquisition on the following markets:
- the national market for the manufacture and supply of non-beverage rigid plastic containers (market 1)
- the national market for reprocessing of PET plastics (market 2)
- the national market for the manufacture and supply of post-consumer resin (PCR) (market 3).

It was noted during the ACCC's assessment that market 1 may exist on a narrower scale than this and market 3 may exist on a broader scale, however, adopting either of those definitions would not have altered the conclusion below.

Competition analysis

The ACCC formed the view that the acquisition was unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any market. Factors informing this conclusion included:
- the existence of several alternative suppliers of plastic packaging which compete with Signum or could expand their operations to do so
- the availability of imported non-beverage rigid plastic containers and extruded PET sheets at competitive prices and of comparable quality to those supplied by the merged entity
- the likelihood that export markets will competitively constrain the merged entity in the sale of post-consumer PET plastic products for recycling
- the availability of imported PCR, the substitutability of virgin resin for PCR and the likelihood that this will constrain the merged entity in the manufacture and supply of PCR.