Brussels, 08/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission gave the go-ahead on Thursday 8 December to the proposed acquisition of Nuon Belgium and Nuon Power Generation Walloon, which together form the Belgian assets of Nuon, by the Italian energy group ENI. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area (EEA).
The proposed transaction leads to an overlap in the parties' activities for the retail supply of gas to large industrial and commercial customers. However, given the relatively modest combined market shares of the parties and the resulting minimal increment, there are no competition concerns. Moreover, the parties have very low combined market shares for supplying small industrial and commercial customers, and will continue to face a very significant competitor on this market.
As ENI is also active on a number of other markets, in particular in the wholesale supply of gas, the proposed transaction leads to vertical relationships. However given the target's limited market shares on the retail markets, the Commission concluded that no competition concerns arise from this integration. (OL/transl.rt)