Mars has not offered remedies to EU for Kellanova deal, EU website shows

HighlightsCandy company Mars has not proposed any remedies to European Union antitrust regulators regarding its $36 billion acquisition of Kellanova, the maker of Pringles. The European Commission is expected to initiate a full-scale investigation into the acquisition by the end of its preliminary review on June 25, raising concerns about Mars's high market share in certain product categories within the European Union. The merger, which combines brands like M&Ms, Snickers, and Pringles, comes at a time when the consumer market is experiencing inflation and a shift towards private label brands.
Candy company
Mars
has not offered remedies to EU antitrust regulators reviewing its proposed $36-billion takeover of Pringles maker Kellanova, an update on the European Commission website showed on Thursday.
The deadline for Mars to offer remedies was June 18.
Mars and Kellanova did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Mars was unlikely to offer remedies for now to address the EU competition enforcer's concerns about its high market share in certain products in some European Union countries and its portfolio of strong brands.
People close to the matter said the EU antitrust watchdog will launch a full-scale investigation into the deal at the end of its preliminary review which finishes on June 25.
An EU investigation could force Mars to divest assets to allay competition concerns.
But the bar is high for regulators to prove anti-competitive harm caused by so-called portfolio effects, which refer to a combined portfolio of products boosting a company's dominant position or creating market power.
It is also difficult to find remedies to address portfolio effects.
The deal, announced last August, is one of the biggest in a sector dealing with the impact of inflation-weary belt-tightening consumers and a shift to private label brands.
The transaction brings brands from M&Ms and Snickers to Pringles and Pop-Tarts under one roof.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

First Post

an hour ago

• First Post

Romania finally gets a prime minister, budget crisis PM Bolojan's first test

Romania's President Nicusor Dan nominated Ilie Bolojan, leader of the National Liberal Party, after weeks of coalition talks. Now, the biggest challenge in the new government's hands will be tackling the budget crisis read more Romania's new pro-Western president, Nicusor Dan, on Friday nominated Ilie Bolojan, leader of the pro-European National Liberal Party (PNL), as the country's next prime minister. AP Romania's new pro-Western President, Nicusor Dan , nominated Ilie Bolojan, leader of the pro-European National Liberal Party (PNL), as the country's next prime minister. The move was announced on Friday, marking an end to the weeks of political uncertainty following the annulled December presidential elections. The 56-year-old centre-right leader was serving the role of Senate president and is known for his reformist approach and administrative discipline. It is pertinent to note that Bolojan had previously served as acting president from February to May, when Dan defeated a hard-right opponent in a heated presidential election rerun . STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The nomination came as Romania, a European Union and NATO member state, is seeking to end a protracted political crisis that has gripped the nation since last year. Bolojan was nominated following a fresh round of talks between Dan and PNL. The biggest challenge facing Bolojan now will be taking care of the budget crisis in the country. The budget crisis: Bolojan's biggest challenge The 56-year-old leader will be tasked with tackling Romania's dire finances and reconciling the divided EU member. The country's budget deficit stood at 9.3 per cent at the end of last year, making it the highest in the European Union, AFP reported. In a press conference last week, Bolojan said Romania was 'in a complicated situation', adding that the incoming government would have to resort to 'unpopular measures' that could include cutting public spending and imposing tax rises. Meanwhile, Political scientist Sergiu Miscoiu told AFP that Bolojan was 'the person best placed to take unpopular measures to tackle the serious budget crisis'. However, analysts also point out that apart from a brief time as interim president, he had 'no experience in national politics'. Apart from this, deep social divisions in the nation were also made clear by the controversies that surrounded the presidential election. According to Cristian Andrei, a Bucharest-based political consultant, the new government will face the challenge of reaching a longer-term consensus over already delayed state reforms. 'There is only a disputed agreement on very short-term measures for the economic and budget crisis,' the political consultant told The Associated Press. 'If the short-term measures come with a social cost, inflation … (and) will not be met by profound changes in policies and institutions, then the political crisis will loom over the next years and (future) elections," he furthered. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD What comes next Bolojan's nomination will now need to be approved by the country's parliament. According to Euro News, his government is expected to be comprised of the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, the PNL, the reformist Save Romania Union party, and the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party. Ahead of his nomination, the PSD has pushed for a power-sharing agreement that would see a rotation of the prime ministerial post. While speaking after being nominated for the prime ministerial position, Bolojan said he's 'fully aware of the great responsibility' the role will bring and acknowledged it 'will not be an easy undertaking.' 'I will pursue three priorities: to restore order to the country's finances, to work toward good governance that creates conditions for development in Romania, and … to show proper respect to the Romanian people," he furthered. While the far-right parties recently won a third of the parliament seats, they were kept out of the talks to form a new government. Defeated presidential candidate labelled the move as 'a disgrace and an insult'. Meanwhile, the European Union has voiced concerns over the rise of Eurosceptic parties in NATO member Romania that are opposed to sending military aid to Ukraine. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies.

Economic Times

2 hours ago

• Economic Times

Road to a $3.7 trillion Stablecoin market is full of obstacles

Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Crypto TrackerPowered By TOP COINS TOP COIN SETS BNB 55,738 ( -0.26 %) Buy XRP 184.44 ( -0.79 %) Buy Bitcoin 89,70,033 ( -1.12 %) Buy Solana 12,162.23 ( -3.51 %) Buy Ethereum 2,10,149 ( -3.78 %) Buy Lower Fees and Faster Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Low Liquidity Regulatory Uncertainty The passage of stablecoin legislation in the US Senate marks a huge leap forward for the potential mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies that track the US dollar there are still big problems to solve before many businesses can capitalise on the opportunities that are arising. Now, stablecoins are taking the leap from their original use as crypto-market poker chips to common mediums of exchange, offering merchants and consumers cheaper and more efficient payment the hurdles getting in the way of the hype: An uneven regulatory environment between major markets like the US and the European Union that threatens to create compliance risks, as well as gaps in know-your-customer standards that raise concerns about fraud and illicit activity. What's more, the potential proliferation of competing stablecoins from issuers large and small could create complexity that stymies their adoption.'As with any new form of value, widespread adoption necessitates regulatory clarity, consistent legal frameworks across jurisdictions and – importantly – interoperability with existing infrastructure and assets,' said Tom Zscach, chief innovation officer at Swift, the global bank-messaging cooperative. 'Without this last point, new assets just risk creating additional fragmentation in an already complex financial ecosystem.'The eye-popping success of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group Inc.'s initial public offering — its shares are trading at about five times their offering price less than two weeks later — speaks to the optimism surrounding the potential growth to be found in this once-obscure corner of the crypto market. Meanwhile, financial giants including PayPal Inc., Banco Santander SA and Deutsche Bank AG are among those who have recently explored or already entered the space, while others like Visa Inc. and Stripe Inc. have adapted their existing infrastructure to be stablecoin-friendly. Even President Donald Trump has launched a stablecoin via his family's venture, World Liberty Financial merchants and other businesses, the advantages of using the tokens could be significant: lower transaction costs, faster payments and 24/7 availability. Banks and fintechs are not the only ones taking notice. Inc. and Walmart Inc. are among large multinational companies which have recently discussed issuing their own stablecoins in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing unidentified people familiar with the all could lead to an explosion of growth in the sector. The world's supply of stablecoins could swell to as high as $3.7 trillion by 2030 if growing integration of digital assets into traditional finance and favourable macroeconomic conditions continue, Citigroup Inc. analysts said in an April report. But there's a caveat to that prediction. Should risks like delayed regulations, fraud, and security concerns go unmitigated, Citi estimated the figure could be closer to $500 billion, which nonetheless is still about double what it is the sector has already rapidly grown in popularity, stablecoins are still largely used for transactions related to the cryptocurrency market rather than business payments. The total volume of all stablecoin transactions was nearly $4 trillion in February, according to data compiled by Allium Labs and Visa. Yet only $6 billion in stablecoin transactions categorised as payments were recorded that month, an analysis of data collated by Artemis, Castle Island Ventures and Dragonfly Capital use case for payments has started to gain traction, even before US legislation officially goes into the books. Shadeform AI, a San Francisco-based startup running a marketplace for providers of artificial intelligence technology, started accepting stablecoins as a payment method in February, facilitated by its existing payments processing partner, then, Shadeform has seen transaction cost savings of up to 70% when a customer chooses to pay using Circle's stablecoin USDC , Chief Technology Officer Ronald Ding said in an interview. At sticker prices, Stripe charges 2.9% for payments using credit cards in the US, plus a small flat fee, with an added 1.5% on top if the customer is paying with an international card. While Automated Clearing House payments and wire transfers can be cheaper than credit cards, those transactions can take up to a week to stablecoin payments , that Stripe fee drops to 1.5% — and the cash arrives instantly. As a result, customers paying in USDC don't have to wait for the check to clear before Shadeform can give them access to the computing power they've bought, and Shadeform isn't exposed to potential chargebacks, Ding said.'Being able to save the difference, in certain cases, can save us a lot more on the actual profit that we're making,' he are also finding stablecoins useful for streamlining payments to workers around the Writer, an AI content software business based in Malaysia, started using stablecoins after it lost a developer in Argentina because fees for traditional payment methods were too costly and taking too long to clear. Now about 30% of the company's external payments go through USDC, according to CEO Adam Yong, including those made to some of its own software providers.'What convinced me was seeing how much smoother our operations run when we're not waiting on bank transfers or dealing with currency conversion headaches,' Yong said over are also becoming a practical payment solution for companies with suppliers in areas with limited access to traditional banking services. Win Win Coffee, a Philadelphia-based merchant, has been testing out PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin and is considering using it to pay for coffee from a farmers' cooperative in Colombia.'A lot of people need cash, and a lot of these producers are unbanked. When they're living in areas where banks aren't very close by, stablecoin helps,' said Matt Nam, co-founder of Win Win. 'If we're doing things more securely and we're sending payments faster, that helps us to have some competitive advantage.'Still, stablecoins remain cumbersome for very large payments due to relatively low liquidity compared with the vast volumes handled by global banks each day. JPMorgan Chase & Co. alone processes around $10 trillion in daily transactions.'Where it gets clunky is in the hundreds of millions of dollars,' said Chris Harmse, co-founder of stablecoin payments company BVNK. 'If you are moving interbank-sized flows, it will get clunky.' This is likely to change as stablecoins gain further acceptance by existing payment processors, he jurisdictions like the European Union, Singapore and Hong Kong now have rules for stablecoins, but major players like the US and the UK aren't expected to have regulation fully implemented for months or even years to come. That uncertainty currently makes it harder for businesses weighing whether to use them for payments.'Firms are kind of stuck because 18 months, from a policymaking perspective, is incredibly fast, almost overly ambitious,' said Laura Navaratnam, UK policy lead at the Crypto Council for Innovation, speaking on a panel organised by Stripe in London last month. 'But from a commercial perspective, it may as well be a decade away.'As a result, it's hard for businesses to know whether they're in compliance with existing rules in areas like KYC checks and anti-money laundering measures. Operating on brand new and complex technology means businesses also have to get up to speed on how to use some services, or spend time and money converting their back-end systems to work with new while cross-border payments is a compelling use case for stablecoins, liquidity is limited for non-dollar tokens since the vast majority of the $250 billion stablecoin market is denominated in the US currency. This makes it hard to settle payments efficiently in local manufacturing giant Siemens AG is not testing or considering stablecoins, in part because they still 'bring a number of structural disadvantages,' Heiko Nix, the company's global head of cash management and payments, said in an interview. These include currency conversion steps and FX risk, especially when stablecoins are US dollar-pegged and used in a euro environment, Nix the company has been using JPMorgan's blockchain-based payment network Kinexys Digital Payments for two years, currently processing about 1,000 payments a month. 'We see no added value in stablecoins compared to tokenised commercial bank money, especially for industrial or treasury use,' Nix deposits are typically digital tokens issued by regulated banks that represent claims on bank deposits. They are, in essence, bank account balances represented on a blockchain.'Tokenised commercial bank money offers all technical benefits — 24/7 availability, programmability, atomic settlement — while retaining the legal and accounting features of conventional cash,' Nix said. 'It integrates seamlessly into our systems without added complexity,' he compliance with taxes and local rules is taking priority for businesses over speed or cost efficiency, according to Gabriele Zuliani, chief revenue officer for crypto exchange Bitso Inc.'s business division. 'Unless you provide the clarity on these two fundamental pieces — they may love the technology and the speed of the settlement and everything — but there is a huge barrier for adoption because they don't know if they're getting themselves into trouble,' said Zuliani, speaking at the Stripe event in issuers like PayPal remain positive that stablecoins will get their moment.'It's not a silver bullet, and I think people sometimes get a little bit impatient,' May Zabaneh, PayPal's vice president of product for digital currencies and remittances, said in an interview. 'These are things that we have to work hard at.'

Time of India

4 hours ago

• Time of India

Dollar edges higher vs yen amid focus on Middle East unrest

The U.S. dollar rose to a three-week high against the safe-haven yen and gained ground on the Swiss franc on Friday amid signs tension in the Middle East is easing after Iran backed continued discussions with Europe on its conflict with Israel. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran backed further talks with Germany, France, Britain and the EU and would be prepared to meet again in the near future following talks in Geneva. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Access all TV channels anywhere, anytime Techno Mag Learn More Israel and Iran have been waging a week-long air battle as the Israeli government seeks to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions, and market participants are nervous about possible U.S. attacks on Iran, sparking a surge in the greenback. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six peers, including the Swiss franc, the Japanese yen, and the euro, is poised to rise 0.6% this week. On the day, however, the index remains flat after a Federal Reserve governor said rate cuts should be considered as soon as July, given recent inflation data. Live Events "The market's already expecting two rate cuts. That was just confirmed by the Fed this week. So, Mr. (Chris) Waller coming out and saying that, would indicate that it's coming sooner rather than later," said Joseph Trevisani, senior analyst at FX Street. Iran said on Friday it would not discuss the future of its nuclear programme while under attack by Israel, as Europe tried to coax Tehran back into negotiations. Meanwhile, the White House said on Thursday that President Donald Trump would decide on the potential involvement of the United States in the conflict in the next two weeks. That helped soothe nervous investors worried about an imminent U.S. attack on Iran, even though the prospect of a broadening Middle East conflict kept risk appetite in check. Brent crude fell more than 2%, but at around $77 a barrel, it was close to the January peak it hit last week. The drop supported the currencies of net oil-importing economies such as the euro and the yen. The euro rose 0.3% at $1.1534, while the yen fell 0.29% to 145.88 per dollar. The recent spike in oil prices added a new layer of inflation uncertainty for central banks across regions, which have been grappling with the potential impact of U.S. tariffs on their economies. Although the Federal Reserve this week stuck with its forecast of two interest rate cuts this year, Chair Jerome Powell warned of "meaningful" inflation ahead. Analysts saw the central bank's delivery as a "hawkish tilt" further underpinning the greenback's gains this week. The Swiss franc was flat at 0.8166 per dollar but was set for its largest weekly drop since the third week of April, after the country's central bank lowered interest rates to 0%. Investors were, however, taken aback by an unexpected 25-basis-point interest rate cut by Norges Bank, and the krone is down more than 2% against the dollar this week. Though geopolitical tensions were the main market focus this week, concerns about a trade war and the impact it may have on costs, corporate margins, and overall growth are ever-present, as Trump's early July tariff deadline looms. These concerns have weighed on the dollar, which is down about 9% this year. Currencies positively correlated to risk sentiment, such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars, were down 0.3% against the buck. Elsewhere, the yuan was flat at 7.1820 after China kept benchmark lending rates unchanged as expected. Sterling was flat at $1.3471, paring earlier gains after British retail sales data showed volumes recorded their sharpest drop since December 2023 last month. "The default setting may be position adjusting," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. Currency bid prices at 20 June 07:32 p.m. GMT Descripti RIC Last U.S. Pct YTD Pct High Low on Close Change Bid Bid Previous Session Dollar <=USD 98.701 98.67 0.04% -9.02% 98.898 98.5 index > 36 Euro/Doll 492 Dollar/Ye 175 Euro/Yen 16 Dollar/Sw 55 Sterling/ 457 Dollar/Ca 88 Aussie/Do 452 Euro/Swis 86 Euro/Ster 27 NZ 65 llar Dollar/No 003 Euro/Norw 265 Dollar/Sw 93 Euro/Swed 65