Brussels, 17 August 2022
The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control of Advarra Holdings, Inc. (‘Advarra’) by Blackstone, Inc., both of the US, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (‘CPP Investments’) of Canada. Advarra provides ethical review services and technology solutions to biopharma companies, contract research organisations, and clinical trial sites. Blackstone is a global alternative asset manager. CPP Investments handles funds transferred to it by the Canada Pension Plan and invests principally in public and private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income investments. The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns, given that Advarra has negligible actual and foreseen activities in the European Economic Area and that the horizontal overlaps and vertical relationships between the companies’ activities are limited. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.10813.
Source – EU Commission