Wedgwood preserved
PAUL Channon has shooed the bull out of Wedgwood's china shop. That shows that the merger boom has made the Govern- ment rethink its policy, and not before time. Norman Tebbit, when he sat in Mr Channon's chair, laid down one test: com- petition. The Monopolies Commission would look at bids which might, on the face of things, reduce competition, but all other bids would be left to the market. That rule, for all its clarity and consistency, has proved a charter for conglomerate mer- gers. No one has applied to them the test which the Commission has, by law, to apply: would this merger tend to operate against the public interest? Mr Channon has now told the Commission to apply that test to London International Group's con- tested bid for Wedgwood. LIG is a rapidly assembled miscellany of companies includ- ing Royal Worcester. The group's best known product is the Durex contraceptive. Wedgwood is a British name which speaks for itself in the markets of the world. The future of that name in those markets is the issue of public interest here — not the share of the home market which Wedg- wood and Royal Worcester might have if stacked together.
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