Special intervention

competition Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has asked the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate the proposed acquisition by Lockheed Martin UK of the Insys Group.

Lockheed Martin and Insys announced details of the proposed transaction on August 16 2005.

Insys is a specialist defence engineering and R&D company which was formed in 2001 following a management buy-out of Hunting Engineering. Lockheed Martin UK is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bethesda, MD, USA.

Sutcliffe has issued a Special Intervention Notice, which will require the OFT to report back to DTI Ministers on any national security concerns raised by interested parties.

The OFT will invite comments from any interested parties on the public interest aspects of this case, and report to the Secretary of State by September 29 2005.

Ministers will then decide whether to refer the merger on public interest grounds to the Competition Commission for a more detailed investigation, seek undertakings in lieu of a reference from the parties, or to clear the merger.