By Sabela Ojea


The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority said Friday that it has launched a probe to determine whether the U.K. government's contracts with Mitie Group PLC, Mitie Care and Custody Ltd. and PAE Inc. breached competition laws.

The U.K. regulator said Tuesday that it has started an investigation into potential anticompetitive conduct in relation to the government's procurement processes for the contracts at the Heathrow and Derwentside Immigration Removal Centers in the U.K.

In relation to the case, Mitie Group said it is engaged in the Heathrow immigration removal centers tender process through Mitie Care and Custody Ltd.

However, the U.K. outsourcing group also said that it withdrew from the Derwentside immigration removal centers tender process without submitting a bid "due to the Home Office's 'lotting' conditions, which would have prevented a single bidder from winning both contracts."

Mitie Group added that it is co-operating with the CMA and its investigation and that is confident it will be fully exonerated from the probe.

No assumption should be made at this stage, the CMA said.


Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-04-22 0325ET