Appeal from Lloydspharmacy owner turned down
The merger of health and beauty retailer Boots and pharmaceutical giant Alliance UniChem has been given the green light by the Competition Appeals Tribunal.

The tribunal unanimously dismissed German retailer Celesio's application to review the merger.

Boots said it welcomed the decision and preparations for the merger are well-advanced. The merger is expected to become effective on July 31 this year. The formal process will begin after Boots' preliminary results on May 18.

The merger was given conditional clearance by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on February 6.

However, Celesio, owner of Lloydspharmacy in the UK, applied for a judicial review of the OFT's decision in March this year. The German retailer and pharmaceutical distributor said it believed the deal represented such a major transformation of the market that it needed to be questioned.

Topics