The Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) sanctioned Fruits and Vegetables of Quality (FHC) and a natural person –whose name was not made public– for 2,345,760 pesos for not notifying the acquisition of shares representing the capital stock of HBC International, since this involved an indirect purchase of part of Interjet’s assets that was not approved by the plenary session of the Commission.
The operation, carried out in November 2020, led to the opening of a file by Cofece to verify whether the companies involved complied with the respective merger notice, of which they were notified without any action on their part, he indicated. The authority.
“Despite the fact that the offenders were timely notified of the above, they did not present statements, evidence or arguments to defend themselves against the possible breach of the Law, so the analysis was carried out with the information available,” Cofece said in a statement. “The failure to notify the transaction before carrying it out made it impossible for Cofece to exercise its powers to assess the impact that it would have on the markets and thereby prevent, if applicable, possible damages and/or risks to the competition process. and free attendance.
Cofece even pointed out that this operation will not produce legal effects, so it cannot be registered in the corporate books, formalized in a public instrument or registered in the Public Registry of Commerce until it has, if applicable, the favorable authorization of the Plenary of the Commission.
“Once the matter has been resolved and the parties have been notified, the sanctioned economic agents have the right to go to the Judicial Branch of the Federation to review the legality of Cofece’s actions,” the document adds.
This is not the first sanction made by Cofece in the process of changing hands that Interjet has had.
In February 2021, it sanctioned the company HBC International for an increase in its share capital carried out in June 2020, which led to the acquisition of part of Interjet, at a time when the owner of HBC, Alejandro del Valle – current owner of Interjet–, had associated with FHC, Carlos Cabal Peniche, for an alleged injection of capital of 150 million dollars in the company, an operation that never materialized.
The operation was notified to Cofece two months later, for which HBC was fined more than 950,000 pesos.
According to the directors and the Interjet union, Alejandro del Valle owns more than 90% of the airline’s shares, which were acquired from the Alemán family, founders of the company.
