Compass Lexecon Advised Mutares on its Acquisition of Ruukki Building Systems

In April 2020, the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority ("FCCA") conditionally approved the transaction by which Donges Teräs Oy (owned by Mutares) acquired Ruukki Building Systems Oy (a subsidiary of SSAB Group). Both parties are steel structure suppliers with Ruukki Building Systems specializing in the design, manufacture and installation of building frame, envelope and bridge structures out of steel. The FCCA identified competition concerns in the market for steel frame structures for business premises and industrial buildings, as well as in the market for turnkey deliveries of steel bridge structures. These concerns were removed by commitments given by the Parties.

Compass Lexecon provided economic support to Mutares and its portfolio company Donges Teräs (Donges Steel) during the merger proceedings. We investigated market definition and the potential unilateral effects arising from the transaction. We analyzed tender data and conducted a B2B survey together with the national competition authority.

The Compass Lexecon team included Pekka Sääskilahti, Lotta Vaananen and Eeva Hietamaki, with support from Nadine Watson.