Nine months into the merger regime and the number of deals being notified continues to increase. Clearance rates continue to be high; however, decisions are taking longer - likely due to the increase in notifications. The ACCC has also blocked a further two Phase 2 deals.
The trends captured in our report raise questions around what the long-term effect will be to business investment in Australia, particularly when increased time often leads to increased costs for getting deals through; and what the Government's response will be.
The Lookback provides a summary of clearance rates, time taken for decisions, key reasons for clearance and rejection decisions, private vs public deals and other statistics.
JWS 26100006 Merger Regime Analysis Q3 2026 v7 002
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