THE STATE’S mergers and monopolies watchdog yesterday gave the go-ahead to utility group NTR’s Greenstar subsidiary to buy one of French multinational Veolia’s Irish waste management businesses.

The Competition Authority yesterday said it had given the go-ahead for the deal which was agreed last year but had to be notified to the agency because of the scale of both operations.

Greenstar will take over the non-hazardous waste collection and processing service operated by Veolia Environmental Services Ireland (VESI) for commercial and industrial customers in Ireland.

The sale, for an undisclosed sum, will cement Greenstar’s position as the leading player in the sector in the country.

VESI operates waste management transfer stations in Dublin, Newry, Cork, Waterford and Limerick. Greenstar operates waste management transfer stations in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Wexford, Wicklow and Sligo. The two operations will be merged as a result of the deal.

The Competition Authority has to investigate any sale or takeover where one of the parties has a turnover of more than €40 million a year to establish whether it will limit normal commercial competition in the relevant sector and markets. It began a preliminary inquiry last year, and launched a more detailed secondary one in January. The authority announced yesterday that the sale had successfully cleared this hurdle.

Veolia will continue to operate a hazardous waste business in Ireland. The French multinational sold the other business as part of an ongoing disposal of some of its operations which it began in 2008.

Another division of the same group runs Dublin’s Luas system. Veolia last week announced that worldwide profits from its waste, transport and utility-related operations grew 44 per cent in 2009 to €584 million.