Brussels, 21/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 20 September, the European Commission cleared the planned creation of a joint venture between the insurance companies Euler Hermes SA of France (which is controlled by Allianz of Germany) and Mapfre SA of Spain, which will encompass their respective delcredere businesses in Spain, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, as well as Mapfre's delcredere business in Argentina. Delcredere insurance protects policy holders against the risk of their clients' insolvency. The Commission's investigation showed that the overlaps resulting from the creation of the joint venture in the Spanish delcredere insurance and credit insurance sectors were below 15% and thus did not raise competition concerns, and that any coordination between the two companies that would result in restricting competition was highly unlikely, because their cooperation is limited to the scope of the joint venture, which only represents a small part of the parents' portfolio. The deal was notified on 16 August this year. (FG/transl.fl)