On 13 June 2023 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) authorised, subject to a behavioural undertaking, the merger of the two largest suppliers of cash-in-transit services in Australia – Linfox Armaguard and Prosegur Australia. The parties competed in cash distribution and management services (cash-in-transit) and ATM services.
The ACCC found that the cash-in-transit industry is in structural decline due to decreasing use of cash as a payment method and felt that if the merger did not proceed it was highly probable that in the short term one of businesses would cease to supply cash-in-transit services in Australia. Although the ACCC found that the merger would cause some competitive detriment it concluded that this was outweighed by the public benefits. As part of the undertaking, the merger firm agreed that existing customers must continue to receive their current contracted price and that future price increases would be limited to CPI + 7.5% annually.
RBB's team led by George Siolis in Melbourne and Iestyn Williams in London, assisted by Chris Whelan, Jack Mays, Jackson McDonough and Frank Hu in Melbourne, prepared the supporting expert report for Armaguard and Prosegur.
That expert report can be found here. The ACCC’s assessment can be found here.
