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Sina’s application to buy the core assets of Focus Media is incomplete, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said yesterday, amid speculation regulators may reject the deal.
The MOFCOM received Sina’s application in February and supplementary information from Sina and Focus on four different occasions, according to a MOFCOM statement. But the documents submitted failed to satisfy conditions set out in China’s anti-monopoly law, the ministry said.
“Currently, the ministry is conducting procedures in accordance with the law,” the MOFCOM said in the statement, without elaborating.
The merger proposal would see Sina effectively buying Focus, a leading outdoor advertising firm, in a deal valued at about $1.37 billion in stock. Since announcing the deal in December, which would be the largest to date for China’s media sector, both firms have said the government has officially notified them on their application to merge.
The lengthy delays have led to rampant speculation that the deal was running into trouble with regulators, especially after Coca Cola’s high-profile bid to buy leading Chinese juice maker Huiyuan failed in March, on anti-monopoly concerns.
“We have not been formally notified by the Ministry of Commerce that they have officially accepted our application for the merger,” said Jing Lu, a Focus spokeswoman.
Both companies have told media recently that they have complied with the ministry’s request for more information and are preparing additional documents.
(Reuters)
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