On 9th June 2008, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration by which the undertaking Northern States Agency, Inc. (‘Northern States’, USA) controlled by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (‘Berkshire Hathaway’, USA) and the undertaking Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (‘Munich Re’, Germany) acquire joint control of the undertaking Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers Limited (‘GAUM’, United Kingdom) by way of purchase of shares.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

• Berkshire Hathaway: Is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged mainly in property and casualty insurance business conducted on both a direct and reinsurance basis.
• Munich Re: is a professional reinsurer and holding company for companies active in supply of reinsurance and direct insurance services and in asset management.
• GAUM: Deal in  transaction, as agent, of aerospace insurance and the provision of management services to aerospace insurance operations.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission. Observations must reach the Commission not later than 28th June 2008.

The concentrartion is pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.