Brussels, 02/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 2 December, the European Commission authorised the proposed acquisition by US private equity investment firm Sun Capital Partners of two wholly owned subsidiaries of Royal DSM of the Netherlands: DSM Special Products (“DSP”), which produces specialist chemicals, and DSM IP Assets (“DSM IP”), which is the owner of certain intellectual property rights.
After examining the operation, of which it was notified on 26 October, the Commission noted a number of horizontal and vertical overlaps. These are, however, limited and are unlikely to cause any competition concerns or close off the markets involved, since alternatives and credible suppliers will remain in the markets after the transaction.
These overlaps are due, for example to the superposition of the activities of Emerald Kalama Chemicals, a US-based company controlled by Sun Capital Partners, and DSM Special Products in the production of benzoic acid, sodium benzoate, benzyl alcohol and benzaldehyde. Other overlaps were noted in a number of upstream and downstream markets for these products. (F.G./transl.rt)