The Secretary of State has given the Competition and Markets Authority an intervention notice on public interest grounds in respect of the anticipated merger of Gardner Aerospace Holdings Limited and Impcross Limited. This Order is made for the purpose of preventing action which might prejudice a reference of the matter to the Competition and Markets Authority under section 45 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (c. 41) or impede the taking of any action under Part 3 of that Act which may be justified by the Secretary of State’s decisions on the reference.

Article 3 of the Order prevents completion of the anticipated merger and articles 4 to 8 require the parties to the proposed merger to maintain the business of Impcross Limited separately from that of Gardner Aerospace Holdings Limited and impose obligations in relation to the carrying on of the business and the safeguarding of assets. Articles 9 to 11 impose reporting obligations on the parties to the proposed merger and article 12 allows the Secretary of State to give directions for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the Order.

This Order, unless previously revoked, will cease to have effect if the Secretary of State accepts an undertaking under paragraph 3 of Schedule 7 to the Enterprise Act 2002 instead of referring the merger to the Competition and Markets Authority under section 45 of that Act or when the intervention notice otherwise ceases to be in force in accordance with section 43.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. An Explanatory Memorandum is available alongside the instrument on the UK legislation website, www.legislation.gov.uk.