Brussels, 27/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 May, the European Commission gave its conditional blessing to the planned acquisition of the Italian construction materials group Italcementi by its German competitor HeidelbergCement. This operation, which is worth several billion euros, is therefore subject to HeidelbergCement selling all of Italcementi's activities in Belgium.
The Commission's investigation showed that the companies' activities overlap substantially in Belgium and the neighbouring regions, where their total joint market share is more than 50%. The Commission therefore had concerns that the merged entity would not face sufficient competition from the remaining players and that the operation would bring about increases in the prices of cement and ready-mix concrete in this area. The sale of Italcementi's Belgian activities removes these concerns. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)