On September 22nd, the Official Journal of the European Union published the information related to the prior notification of a proposed concentration pursuant  to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 between the undertakings Deutsche Bank and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and Beheer- en Beleggingsmaatschappij Befraco BV.

The prior notification, which was received by the Commission on September 10th 2008, informed of a proposed concentration by which the undertakings Deutsche Bank (‘Deutsche Bank’, Germany) and The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (‘Goldman Sachs’, USA) acquire within the meaning of Article 3.1 b) of the Council Regulation joint control of Beheer- en Beleggingsmaatschappij Befraco BV (‘Befraco’, the Netherlands), by way of purchase of shares.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned by this operation are:

• Deutsche Bank (Public, FRA:DBK): is a commercial bank headquartered in Germany and operating worldwide. It offers a wide range of investment, financial and related products and services to private individuals, corporate entities and institutional clients.
• Goldman Sachs (Public, NYSE:GS): is a global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of banking, securities and investment services worldwide.
• Befraco: is active in finance leasing.

Any observation by interested third parties on the proposed operation, must be submitted to the Commission not later than ten days following the date of the publication. Observations must be sent to the Commission under the reference number  COMP/M.5299 — Deutsche Bank/Goldman Sachs/Befraco, by fax ((32-2) 296 43 01 or 296 72 44) , or by post to the following address:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Competition
Merger Registry
J-70
B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel