CCI Clears Four Combinations Including JSW-BMM Merger

The correct answer is the Competition Commission of India. It is the statutory authority that examines proposed combinations, meaning mergers, amalgamations and acquisitions above the prescribed thresholds, to see whether they would cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India, and it cleared this internal restructuring of the JSW Group along with three other combinations the same day. Option A, the securities market regulator, oversees stock exchanges, listed companies, mutual funds and market intermediaries, and takeover disclosures, but it does not grant combination approvals of this kind. Option C is the central bank and regulates banks, payment systems and monetary policy, and would come in only where a bank or a non-banking financial company is involved. Option D deals with insolvency resolution and liquidation under the insolvency code, which is not what this transaction is.

The correct answer is 58.47 per cent. JSW Projects Limited, an unlisted company of the JSW Group based in Mumbai, holds that share of the equity in BMM Ispat Limited at present, and the proposed combination is meant to convert this majority interest into full ownership by amalgamating BMM into JSW Steel Limited. The stated aim is to improve operational, financial and organisational efficiency through economies of scale, pooling of resources and rationalisation of capital, since BMM is already integrated into the group supply chain through sales and purchases within the group. The other options are ordinary shareholding thresholds that often appear in company law questions, but none of them is the figure stated for this transaction. BMM itself runs an integrated steel plant of about one million tonnes a year in Karnataka.

The correct answer is VINCI S.A. The acquirer is a company incorporated under the laws of France and is ultimately controlled by VINCI S.A. through VINCI Highways and VINCI Concessions. VINCI is a global player in concessions, energy and construction with operations in a large number of countries. The targets are special purpose vehicles that operate specific stretches of national highway in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat, together with a company that supplies them operation and maintenance as well as engineering, procurement and construction services. Option B is the private equity firm behind a different approval of the same day, the nutraceuticals transaction. Option C manages the pension fund behind the hospitality transaction. Option D is named only as a plausible infrastructure investor and is not the parent described in the approval.