Brussels, 10/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 10 November, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of Nalco Holding Company, a US water chemical treatment company, by Ecolab, another US chemical company and active internationally in the cleaning and sanitising industry. Nalco Holding Company is also active globally in the water chemical treatment industry. After examination of this operation, notified on 4 October last, it appeared that: - the merged entity will continue to face competition from a number of strong competitors in the affected markets for the supply of water treatment chemicals for cooling and boiler applications, that that the merged entity will not have the market power to foreclose its rivals and that other competitors would be able to react to any foreclosure attempt; - the conglomerate effects arising from the transaction will be limited, although some of the parties' activities involve a range of products generally purchased by the same set of customers. In these conditions, the Commission concluded that this acquisition would not significantly impede effective competition in the EEA or any substantial part of it. (FG/transl.fl)