A £1.4 billion deal to merge two of the UK’s biggest soft drinks companies stalled today after the deal was referred to the competition commission.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said it referred the proposed acquisition of Britvic by AG Barr for further investigation because it could not rule out the possibility of higher prices following a tie-up after surveys suggested Britvic's brands Pepsi and Tango were sufficiently close alternatives to Irn-Bru to raise competition concerns.
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