The News Corp media is reporting that the competition regulator the ACCC has put back the date on which it will hand down its final verdict on the permissibility of the TPG Vodafone Australia merger.
On December 13 2018 the ACCC stated that its preliminary view was that the merger would result in a lessening of competition in the mobile and home internet markets and therefore be uncompetitive.
However, it stated it would not deliver its final verdict until March 28 2019 and was prepared to listen to further submissions and arguments from relevant stakeholders on the impacts of the proposed merger.
For its part TPG stated on December 13 that it "remained confident" that the necessary regulatory approvals and conditions can be met after it works with the ACCC on addressing its concerns and potentially even offering it some concessions.
For example giant waste disposal business Bingo Industries (ASX: BIN) recently offered to sell some of its operations in Sydney in order to get a $750 million deal to buy Dial-a-Dump over the line with the ACCC.
According to the news reports the ACCC has delayed its TPG decision to mid-April as it awaits further documentation for review from interested parties.
Approval still looks no more than a 50:50 bet in my opinion, although it the deal does get approved I expect TPG shares will offer very strong returns over the long term from today's price of $7.20
