Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has given its approval to Aon’s acquisition of and merging with rival Willis Towers Watson (WTW), saying that it does not feel it will restrict competition in the marketplace.
Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is the entity responsible for competition policy and regulation and like so many other country-specific competition authorities, has been analysing the Aon and Willis Towers Watson (WTW) deal to see if it would have any detrimental impact on competition in its local market.
Following a comprehensive consultation, the Taiwan FTC said that it has found the Aon WTW merger will “not significantly restrict competition or benefit” for participants in its marketplace.
As a result, “The combination of Aon plc and Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company is not prohibited,” the Commission explained.
The Taiwan FTC said that Aon and WTW’s businesses overlap in the disciplines of insurance brokerage services, reinsurance brokerage services, retirement welfare services, health and welfare consultancy and human capital consultancy in the country.
On insurance and reinsurance brokerage services, the FTC consulted with market participants and large protection buyers, as well as industry authorities, finding that although Aon and WTW are comparable rivals in Taiwan, “there were still other competitors who could continue to exert competitive pressure after the combination.”
As well, buyers of insurance and reinsurance are deemed to have strong bargaining power and plenty of experience to deal with the resulting combination and find the alternatives that the FTC says do exist.
In the retirement welfare services, health and welfare, and human capital consultancy space, Taiwan’s FTC consulted with Aon and WTW clients, who all said there are plenty of options in the market there and no issues with a restriction of competition because of the merger.
So the Taiwan FTC is happy for the Aon and Willis Towers Watson merger to proceed with no changes specific to its market or divestments required.
It is the first local regulator to give explicit approval that we’ve seen.
Other regional competition authorities are likely to chime in over the coming days and weeks, especially now the remedy package for the European Commission is coming together and additional divestments expected in the US as well.
