Aleksandra Boutin and Xavier Boutin, as well as their team, have successfully assisted Smithfield Foods in obtaining clearance for its acquisition of Pini Polonia. They were involved in the proceedings in front of the European Commission and then in front of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland, where the case was referred.

The economic analysis conducted by Aleksandra and Xavier on this case, among others, included:

• The analysis of the local overlap of the merging parties, taking into account the specificities of their sourcing strategies.
• Demonstrating that the merger would not reduce farmers’ choices regarding slaughterhouses and therefore would not affect purchase prices of livestock.
• Showing that price transparency and the important link between prices in neighboring countries and Poland further limit the parties’ ability to harm farmers post-merger.
• Establishing that the transaction would not restrict access of small and medium market participants to large meat recipients (e.g. retail chains).

For more information, please see the press release of UOKIK:

www.uokik.gov.pl

We really enjoyed working on this case together with Greenberg Traurig, in particular Robert Gago and Radosław Pawluk. Congratulations to them and their team for their excellent legal advice!

A special thank you as well and congratulations to everyone involved at Smithfield Foods for their hard work that made this transaction possible!