The Barclay brothers were in danger of having the deal blocked because of their existing ownership of the Littlewoods catalogue business.
Clearance for the transaction relied on two arguments. GUS argued that the relevant market to look at was the whole non-food retail sector, not just mail order. It also told the Competition Commission that it could find no other buyers for the business and if the Barclays had not come along, the division would have had to have been closed down.
Speaking to The Financial Times, David Simons, chairman of Littlewoods and the bid vehicle March UK, welcomed the commission's decision and said that the priority now would be to reshape the two home shopping businesses and arrest the decline in some aspects of the mail order market.
The Competition Commission decided that the merger would benefit consumers because the GUS business would otherwise probably have not been competing effectively.
According to retail consultancy Verdict, the deal gives the Barclay twins 73% of the "agency" mail order sector, where people buy only on credit, and 28% of the broader mail order market, which includes direct catalogues.
The GUS mail order catalogues include Additions, Abound, Choice, Kays, Marshall Ward and Great Universal. Littlewoods home shopping titles include agency catalogue Littlewoods and Littlewoods Extra, a direct catalogue.
The go-ahead now allows the brothers to focus on their £260m offer for Hollinger Inc, the newspaper holding company that owns The Daily Telegraph.
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