Murugappa family's Mavco and Avenue Capital Group gets CCI nod to acquire MHM Holding

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Murugappa family affiliate Mavco Investments and Avenue Capital Group's proposal to acquire Germany-based MHM Holding. MHM Holding is the parent company of Hubergroup, a global player in the printing ink and chemicals industry. It has global footprint in growth markets such as Asia and India.

The New York-headquartered Avenue Capital Group through its arm, Avenue India Emergence Pte, while Mavco Investments, a private investment vehicle belonging to select members of the Murugappa family, is acquiring a stake in MHM Holding.

"Pursuant to the share purchase agreement (SPA) executed between MHM Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH and MHM Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH (the sellers), Avenue and Mavco had agreed to be severally responsible to acquire 100 per cent of the shares in MHM Holding GmbH (target) from the sellers," a notice submitted with the CCI said.


Subsequently, Avenue and Mavco would incorporate a joint venture company (to be incorporated in India), i.e, JV - India NewCo and assign their rights under the SPA to the joint venture (JV) company, the notice said.

The JV company will pay the cash consideration for the sold shares to the sellers and also infuse cash consideration as new capital into the target for repayment of its existing debt, it added.

The deal was cleared by the fair trade regulator CCI under the green channel route on Tuesday.

"There are no horizontal overlaps and/or actual and potential vertical or complementary linkages between the activities of the target (including its affiliates) in India on the one hand, and the acquirers (including their affiliates) in India, on the other hand," the notice said.

Therefore, the proposed transaction is being notified under the green channel route under the (combination) regulations, 2024, it added.

Under the green channel route, a transaction, which does not raise any risk of an appreciable adverse effect on competition, is deemed to be approved on being intimated to the competition watchdog.

Last month, Hubergroup announced that it has signed a sale and purchase agreement with a consortium between MAVCO Investments, and funds managed by Avenue Capital Group.

The consortium will acquire all shares in the company from the current owner, Cornelius Treuhand Holding.