Brussels, 01/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On 30 November, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of Cognis, a German company supplying specialty chemicals, nutritional ingredients and functional products, by German chemical group BASF. BASF will, however, be required to divest its activities in the sector of hydroxy monomers, a sector in which the activities of the two parties overlap and where the merged entity would have had a strong position in a market where the concentration level is already high.
BASF itself offered to divest activities in the sector in question and will also divest the multifunctional methacrylates and adducts businesses operating on the Hythe site. In addition BASF will grant intellectual property rights that will allow the buyer to produce Polyalkylene Glycols (PAG) and PAG based lubricants, which are mainly used in industrial formulations and household products, exclusively for BASF for a transition period and then in its own right. In the light of these commitments, the Commission concluded that the operation, of which it was notified on 8 October, would not pose any further competition concerns.