Anti-trust law treats 'all firms equally'
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China has "never discriminated" against foreign companies by using different standards in handling cases of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving the anti-trust law since its implementation in 2008, said a senior official of the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.
Since the Chinese government blocked a proposed bid by Coca-Cola for China's top domestic juice maker Huiyuan at a price of $2.5 billion in 2008, there have been concerns that the country is unfairly treating foreign businesses by taking advantage of the anti-monopoly law.
The ministry said that, by the end of June, it had accepted and handled more than 140 M&A cases and approved 95 percent of them "with no strings attached".
"It's unreasonable to conclude that China discriminates or holds any bias against foreign firms by saying that we have banned or set restrictive requirements on some foreign cases," said Shang Ming, director-general of the ministry's anti-monopoly bureau.
The Coca-Cola bid was the only case turned down and five others were approved, although those came with additional restrictive requirements, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
All the six cases involved foreign companies.
He said the reason why China prohibited or set restrictive conditions on certain cases involving foreign firms is that "we found they owned a very high market share, and ... if approved, would exert negative impact on market competition".
The ministry said in April it had also started an anti-monopoly review on a merger proposal between mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto's iron ore joint venture.
China is the biggest buyer of iron ores. There were concerns that the merger of the two major mining companies would put its domestic steel industry at stake.
Organizations representing foreign companies such as the American Chamber of Commerce in China have said major State-owned companies should also be put under scrutiny in anti-trust approval, because many of them have a monopoly position.
Wu Hongwei, professor of law at Renmin University of China, said the accusations against China are groundless as the law is in line with international principles and are not discriminatory.
"No one can deny the progress China has made in opening its market just because of some complaints or pressures," he said.
The number of M&A applications presented to the ministry for approval will grow by 20 percent from a year earlier, as M&A cases worldwide are expected to pick up this year, Shang said.
The ministry said that, during the past two years, it has found a high ratio of foreign companies among the applicants for M&A approvals.
Under the Chinese anti-monopoly law, companies with annual turnovers of 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion) globally and 400 million yuan in China, or combined turnovers of $2 billion in China, must get anti-trust approval for a proposed deal from the Chinese government.
Wei Xinghua, professor of economics with Renmin University of China, said that if an M&A deal is based on market rules, no objection should be raised. However, he said many foreign companies tried to monopolize sectors through the acquisition of local companies.
Foreign companies control 21 out of 28 major industries in the country, Wei said. In many industries, the top five players are all foreign ones, he said.
Shang said China will try to improve the anti-trust law by drafting some supplementary rules and regulations, as the law is still quite new in China. But the improvement will be made gradually, Shang said.
The anti-trust law took effect on Aug 1, 2008. A number of multinationals have been complaining about the slow pace and transparency of the evaluation and review process. In the case of Panasonic's takeover of Sanyo, the ministry accepted the filing four months after the company first lodged its file.
But Shang said the complaints "do not really make sense". Under the law, there are three phases in the review.
"Actually, in the review of majority of the cases, more than 60 percent was finished during the first phase and took less than 30 days. The rest took 90 days and even a few lasted 180 days," he said.
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