The Bundeskartellamt, Germany's competition authority, has concluded that TPG Inc.'s planned acquisition of less than 25% of Techem Group does not require merger control scrutiny. TPG had proactively notified the authority about the stake acquisition due to its majority ownership of Aareon Group, which, like Techem, serves property management companies.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, stated that non-controlling minority stakes below 25% are generally not subject to merger control unless specific circumstances allow the acquirer to exert significant competitive influence over the target company. In this case, the authority found no evidence of such influence.

Techem is one of the leading providers in Germany for consumption-based billing of heating and water costs in buildings, known as submetering. Aareon is the leading provider of property management software in Germany, with both companies serving property managers. Submetering companies rely on interfaces from the property management software used by managers.

The majority owner of Techem is Partners Group, another private equity firm. TPG's acquisition will replace the previous minority shareholders, La Caisse and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, with TPG and two other investment firms.

Initially, TPG intended to acquire more than 50% of Techem, which would have fallen under the jurisdiction of the European Commission. However, this plan was later abandoned by the parties involved.

The assessment of whether a minority stake allows for significant competitive influence is based on the specific circumstances of each case. It is crucial to determine if the target company is expected to consider the acquirer's interests in its market behavior. In this instance, the authority concluded that this was not the case, particularly as no sufficient additional rights were identified. Notably, a cooperation agreement between Aareon and Techem, in place since 2006, was terminated. The Bundeskartellamt also took into account statements from competitors during its investigation.