The European Commission has given the green light to the acquisition of the Italian group Italcementi, active in the production of building materials, by its German competitor HeidelbergCement. The approval is subject to the sale by HeidelbergCement of all Italcementi assets in Belgium.
The Commission's investigation focused mainly on overlaps relating to Belgium and neighboring regions. HeidelbergCement owns two cement production plants in Belgium and three in the Netherlands, while Italcementi has one in Belgium (from which it also supplies customers from France and the Netherlands) as well as numerous plants in France. The merged entity would therefore have had a market share of more than 50% in Belgium and neighboring regions.
HeidelbergCement has proposed to sell all of Italcementi's assets present in Belgium headed up by the subsidiary Compagnie des Ciments Belges SA (“CCB”); all Italcementi activities relating to cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates present in Belgium; Italcementi's participation in a joint venture with LafargeHolcim in the lime stone sector and a portion of the Antoing lime stone quarry owned by HeidelbergCement, in exchange for a portion of Italcementi's Barry quarry, which will remain the property of HeidelbergCement .
The Commission considers that these commitments address competition concerns and therefore concludes that the proposed transaction, modified by the commitments, does not raise competition concerns. The Commission's decision to approve the agreement is subject to full compliance with the commitments.
"The competitiveness of the concrete and cement markets is an essential aspect of the EU construction market - declared the EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager: I therefore welcome the commitments proposed by HeidelbergCement thanks to which the multibillion-dollar acquisition it will not harm the effective exercise of competition”.
By mid-morning, the Italcementi stock on the Stock Exchange was down 0,1%, at 10,50 euro.
