Brussels, 22/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 21 September, the European Commission authorised the proposed joint control acquisition of the Spanish gas company Saggas, which manages commercial activities and maintenance operations for the gas refuelling factory in the port of Sagunto, Spain by the Japanese energy company, Osaka Gas CO Ltd. The latter is a vertically integrated company operating in other natural liquid gas business and transport sectors, as well as in the electricity-producing sector. The other undertakings taking control of Saggas include the infrastructure investment fund Arzak BV, ultimately controlled by Deutsche Bank (Germany) and the Union Fenosa Gas S.A. (UFG, Spain), which is itself controlled by Gas Natural SDG S.A. (Spain) and ENI S.p.A (Italy).
The operation notified on 17 August 2010, mainly involves the provision of infrastructure for gas imports, as well as the retail production and supply of electricity, the supply of natural gas to electricity producers in Spain and the transport of natural liquid gas. It would enable one of the joint control shareholders to disengage from the existing Saggas, to the benefit of Osaka, which is currently not involved in the gas import infrastructure market in Spain. After the examination of the joint control, the Commission concluded that with regard to other markets that could be a cause of concern, market share by the different parties was too low and would subsequently not impinge on competition or present significant problems in this respect within the European Economic Area (EEA) or in any substantial way within this area. (F.G./transl.fl)