DGE Diageo Plc

RNS Number:6180T
Dept Trade & Industry
26 March 2002



DIAGEO PLC (FORMERLY GRAND METROPOLITAN PLC) RELEASED
FROM UNDERTAKINGS

Competition Minister Melanie Johnson announced today that
she has released Diageo plc (formerly Grand Metropolitan
plc) from undertakings given in 1989 under the Fair
Trading Act 1973.

Ms Johnson said:

"The Director General of Fair Trading ("DGFT") has
advised me that the undertakings given by Grand
Metropolitan (now Diageo plc) are no longer relevant. The
adverse effects identified by the MMC in 1989 have been
remedied through divestment".

The undertakings followed a report by the Monopolies and
Mergers Commission ("MMC") on Grand Metropolitan's
acquisition of the William Hill Organisation Limited.

The undertakings required that, where a Mecca and a
William Hill betting office were within 440 yards of each
other, and at least one of those betting offices was
located more than 440 yards from the betting office of a
competitor, then Grand Metropolitan would dispose of one
or both of the betting offices. Grand Metropolitan also
gave an undertaking that it would not seek to re-acquire
any such betting office.

Diageo, formed through the merger of Grand Metropolitan
and Guinness no longer has any betting office interests.


Notes for editors

1. The then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
referred the acquisition by Grand Metropolitan of the
William Hill Organisation Limited to the MMC on 24 April
1989. The MMC's report was published on 23 August 1989.
The MMC concluded that the acquisition would result in a
loss of choice at the local level where William Hill and
Mecca (who were at that time owned by Grand Metropolitan)
were then,  the sole competitors. They recommended that
Grand Metropolitan should be required to dispose of one
of its betting offices in each of these locations. The
then Secretary of State accepted undertakings from Grand
Metropolitan that it would divest offices in these
locations, and would not re-acquire them following
divestment.

2.  Copies of the original undertakings are available from Trevor Kenney,
Competition Policy Directorate 1a, Department of Trade
and Industry, Room 636 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET
and  e-mail Trevor.Kenney@dti.gsi.gov.uk   or tel no 7215
5759 or fax 020 7215 6565.



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