Press Release | March 25, 2021

Alt Indices today announced the launch of the Herfindahl Hirschman Indices tracking market competition. Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI), hailed as a convenient and ideal measure of market power, has been widely accepted by various competition regulators to measure market concentration, including the Competition Commission of India. Such an evaluation aims to ascertain if sanctioning the proposed merger would result in an appreciable adverse effect on competition (AAEC) or not. HHI finds a mention in Form II (the Form) of the Competition Commission of India Regulations, 2011 (Combination Regulations).

The index ranges between (close to) zero, indicating the presence of a large number of firms with each having approximately 0% market share denoting perfect competition, and 10,000 signaling the existence of a sole firm capturing complete 100% of the market i.e. a monopoly.

Says Garry Singh, CEO of Alt Indices, “An independent market concentration index was evidently absent in India. The Herfindahl Hirschman Indices by Alt Indices plugs this gap developing a set of standardized metrics to adjudge pre-merger and post-merger market power across industries. An Industry benchmark report could be availed from Alt Indices before filing a notice for the proposed combination or even alongside pre-filing consultations with Competition Commission of India.”

Alt Indices currently tracks financial and non-financial parameters to assess market competition across three sectors – Banking, Telecommunications, and Insurance sectors*.

*The Indices are available at https://altindices.com/hhi/banking, https://altindices.com/hhi/telecom, https://altindices.com/hhi/insurance