Britain seeks concessions in Celesio deal to buy Sainsbury's pharmacies

FRANKFURT, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A British regulator has asked for concessions to allay competition concerns it has about German drugs distributor Celesio (Other OTC: CAKFF - news) 's planned purchase of Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's pharmacy business.

Celesio, which is three-quarters owned by McKesson, agreed to buy Sainsbury's pharmacy business in July for 125 million pounds ($190 million). As part of the deal, Celesio's LloydsPharmacy is to buy 281 pharmacies, most of which are in Sainsbury's stores.

"At a local level, pharmacies compete on a range of factors that are important to customers such as availability of medicines, waiting and opening times and the quality of advice," Sheldon Mills, Senior Director of Mergers at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and decision-maker in this case, said in a statement on Friday.

The CMA said its initial investigation had identified 78 local areas where customers could be affected by a loss of competition between Celesio's pharmacy chain Lloyds and Sainsbury's pharmacies.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) said the two companies had time until Dec. 18 to offer the concessions. Otherwise, it would refer the case to an independent group of CMA panel members for an in-depth phase 2 investigation.

($1 = 0.6573 pounds) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan. Editing by Jane Merriman)