The Competition Bureau has cleared Manulife Financial Corp.’s (TSX:MFC) proposed acquisition of Standard Life plc’s Canadian operations.
The competition regulator announced its decision Friday, indicating that it has issued a “no-action letter” confirming that, despite the fact that Manulife and Standard Life both offer group retirement and group benefits services, and individual wealth products, it has “concluded that this transaction is unlikely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition.”
The bureau said that it doesn’t believe that competition will be impacted “due to, among other things, the presence of effective remaining competitors in the marketplace for individual wealth products, group benefits and group retirement services.”
It says that a no-action letter confirms that it has reviewed the proposed transaction and concluded that it will not, at this time, challenge that proposed transaction before the Competition Tribunal.
Back in September, Manulife announced a deal to acquire the Canadian operations of Standard Life for about $4 billion in cash. (See Manulife beefs up, Investment Executive, October 2014.)