S&P Global / IHS Markit

CMA invites comments on financial services merger remedy:

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened a consultation on undertakings proposed by S&P Global Inc. (S&P) and IHS Markit Ltd. (IHSM) to address competition concerns over the  anticipated acquisition by S&P of IHSM.

On 19 October 2021, the CMA announced that it would refer the acquisition for an in-depth investigation unless S&P and IHSM offered acceptable undertakings to address the CMA's concerns.

To address the CMA's concerns, S&P and IHSM have offered to undertakings to divest IHSM's: (i) Coal, Metals and Mining division; (ii) Oil Price Information Service business , which includes Petrochem Wire; and (iii) Base Chemicals business.

On 26 October 2021, the CMA announced that it would look in detail at these undertakings. The CMA has until 25 February 2022 to consider whether to accept the undertakings, or a modified version of them. As part of this process, the CMA is now consulting publicly on whether the proposals are sufficient to address the CMA's competition concerns.

Before reaching a final decision, the CMA is therefore inviting interested parties to make their views known. The deadline for responses is 1 February 2022.

The consultation on the undertakings and all other information relating to this merger investigation can be found on the case page at https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases.

In the event of media enquiries please contact the CMA's Press Team at Press@cma.gov.uk or call on 020 3738 6460.