Oxera moves into new and larger space in Brussels

A key player in the European economics consulting scene for almost a decade, Oxera’s Brussels team is led by expert antitrust economist and Oxera Partner, Pascale Déchamps. Having outgrown their existing accommodation, and with further plans to build on an expanding client base in Belgium and France, the team has moved into its own office. Its new permanent home features a confidential client suite and networking area meeting rooms, where it plans to hold seminars and other events.  Read More

Digital Single Market strategy: first impressions

The European Commission has a vision for a Digital Single Market (DSM) in which, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence, individuals and businesses can seamlessly access products and services online, under conditions of fair competition while maintaining a high level of consumer and personal data protection. Announced on 6 May 2015, its strategy introduces a framework for realising the DSM, which is expected to promote innovation, growth and jobs throughout Europe. Alongside this strategy, a separate, but complementary, competition inquiry will focus on barriers to cross-border trade set up by companies supplying goods and services online. Read More

Oxera’s winning advice to LDC results in a landmark French cartel decision

Oxera advised LDC, the largest poultry supplier in France, during the entire process of determining proposed cartel fines. The decision by the French Competition Authority was an important victory for LDC and the other cartel members, since the fines amounted to €15.2m (compared, for example, with €192.7m in the fresh dairy product cartel case of March 2015). Read More

Oxera welcomes new Associate, Professor Dr Christoph Kaserer, Technische Universität München

Oxera is delighted to announce that Christoph Kaserer has joined Oxera as an Associate. Christoph Kaserer is Professor of Finance at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and co-director of the Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS). He is a renowned expert in the fields of corporate finance, project and infrastructure finance, financial markets, private equity, and asset management.  Read More

Oxera leads a workshop on regulatory options for incentivising efficiency in the Italian water sector

On 1 April, Dr Leonardo Mautino, Alan Horncastle, Giordano Colarullo and Pierpaolo Perna ran a workshop on regulatory options aimed at improving the performance of Italian water companies. The workshop was held at the Rome office of Federutility (the association of Italian local public utilities for water, gas and electricity), with the participation of a group of Italian water companies and their economic regulator, Autorità per l'energia elettrica il gas ed il sistema idrico (AEEGSI). Read More

Oxera wins 2015 Global Competition Review Litigation of the Year – Cartel Prosecution Award

Oxera Consulting LLP, a leading economics consultancy and trusted adviser to policymakers and companies, has won the Global Competition Review Litigation of the Year - Cartel Prosecution Award. One of the largest and most complex cartel litigations ever seen in Europe, Oxera has been recognised for its role in helping National Grid to achieve a settlement from the gas-insulated switchgear cartel. Read More

Oxera Partner Professor Tim Jenkinson awarded two prestigious prizes for papers published in the field of corporate finance.

The Brattle Group Distinguished Paper prize is awarded annually by the American Finance Association to recognise the top papers published in the area of corporate finance in the Journal of Finance. The Distinguished Paper prize 2014 has been awarded to Professor Jenkinson for his paper ‘Borrow Cheap, Buy High? The Determinants of Leverage and Pricing in Buyout’. The paper, co-authored with Ulf Axelson, Per Strömberg and Michael S. Weisbach, examined capital structure theories in the context of buyouts. The authors found that buyout leverage is unrelated to factors that drive public firm leverage. Instead, variation in economy-wide credit conditions is the main driver of leverage and pricing in buyouts, while having little impact on public firms. Higher deal leverage is associated with lower buyout fund returns, suggesting that acquirers overpay when access to credit is easier. Read More

Oxera is delighted to have been nominated in the annual Global Competition Review (GCR) awards

For the fifth consecutive year, an Oxera Partner has been recognised as a leading figure within competition economics in the GCR awards, in the Economist of the Year category. Dr Gunnar Niels has been nominated in recognition of his contribution to numerous high-profile cases in 2014. During this period Gunnar advised Liberty Global on the European Commission inquiry into its acquisition of Ziggo; provided economic advice to a bank in the European Commission Article 101 investigation into the credit default swaps market; acted as the court-appointed expert in an abuse of dominance case involving gas contracts; was the economic adviser to Skyscanner during its successful appeal of the OFT’s commitments Decision in the online hotel bookings market; and provided advice to a major retailer in relation to an OFT investigation into retail price maintenance.  Read More

Oxera No.1 in government investigations and no.2 in antitrust litigation in the Global Competition Review (GCR) Economics 21 ratings.

Of the 21 economics consultancies featured in the annual GCR guide to the world's leading competition law and economics practices, Oxera is no 1 and no 2 in government investigations and antitrust litigations respectively. In 2014 we advised on 45 government investigations; our closest competitor in this area advised on only 17 such cases. Similarly, in antitrust litigations Oxera worked on 45 cases, double the average number of cases for other consultancies.   Read More