NZ regulator blocks Suncorp's Tower takeover

The New Zealand Commerce Commission has blocked Suncorp's
agreed takeover of the country's third-biggest insurer,
Tower.
The antitrust regulator said the NZ$236.1mn ($175.4mn)
acquisition by Suncorp subsidiary Vero of 100 percent of Tower
risked damaging competition in the personal insurance market.
Suncorp had won Tower's support for the acquisition last
month with a sweetened NZ$1.40-per-share offer that compared with a
NZ$1.17 bid Tower hadoriginally agreed from Fairfax Financial in February.