Regulators give green light for VetPartners’ Goddard takeover

VetPartners’ bid to acquire a Greater London group of practices is set to proceed after regulators accepted plans to sell off several sites to another major provider.

The deal to take over the Goddard Veterinary Group has been on hold for nearly a year because of concerns raised by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

But the CMA has now indicated it is satisfied with VetPartners’ proposal to offload eight of its practices to Linneaus.

Concerns raised

A decision notice, published on 12 September, reported that third-party concerns had been raised about a continuing lack of competition in the region.

But it added that the CMA believed the proposals were “as comprehensive a solution as is reasonable and practicable, and remedy, mitigate or prevent the SLC [substantial lessening of competition] identified in the SLC decision and any adverse effects resulting from it.

“The merger will, therefore, not be referred for a phase two investigation.”

‘Valued practices’

The sale of the Goddard group, which was founded by veterinary surgeon Arthur Goddard 70 years ago, is now expected to be completed by the end of September.

In a joint statement, VetPartners and Goddard said: “We are pleased to say that discussions with the Competition and Markets Authority to find remedies to the issues they outlined have concluded.

“We look forward to welcoming new colleagues from Goddard Veterinary Group to the VetPartners family of businesses.

“Sadly, some of our valued practices and great people will no longer be part of VetPartners as eight of our sites have been divested to Linnaeus.”

‘Many opportunities’

Russell Welsh, Linneaus’ business development director, added: “We are very excited to have such experienced and talented teams join us.

“We can already see that there are many opportunities for collaboration across the group and I know they will be warmly welcomed by everyone at Linnaeus.”

For a full report, see next week’s Vet Times.