Commission brought up concerns on potential competition issues
The Commerce Commission (Commission) has finally granted Trade Me Limited (Trade Me) clearance to acquire its rival, PropertyNZ Limited (PropertyNZ).
Trade Me is the largest online residential listings platform in New Zealand. Meanwhile, PropertyNZ owns and operates the homes.co.nz website (Homes), mainly providing property data/information to consumers, such as estimated house values.
Chair Anna Rawlings said the Commission granted the clearance because it was confident that the proposed acquisition was unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any New Zealand market.
“We are aware of the harm to competition that can arise when a larger firm buys a growing competitor, and we thoroughly tested whether Homes would develop into a significant competitor. However, evidence received since we issued our Statement of Unresolved Issues has satisfied us Homes is unlikely to become a significant competitor for real estate listings,” Rawlings said in a statement.
Read more: Trade Me acquisition: Commission releases statement of issues
In February, Trade Me applied for clearance to acquire PropertyNZ. In March, the Commission released a statement of preliminary issues outlining key competition issues it considered crucial in deciding whether or not to grant clearance to the proposed acquisition.
Despite concerns on competition issues, the Commission was satisfied that any benefits that Trade Me could obtain from combining its listings offering with Homes’ information or data offering would not substantially affect its rival platforms’ ability to compete in the market.
“These rivals include industry-owned Realestate.co.nz and OneRoof, which is owned by NZME,” Rawlings said.
