The European Commission cleared, on Wednesday 19 October, the proposed acquisition of Evergreen Holding Germany GmbH and Real Alloy UK Holdco Ltd (Real Alloy Europe) by KPS Special Situations Fund V, a fund managed by KPS Capital Partners, LP (KPS) through its subsidiary Speira BidCo I GmbH (Speira). The approval is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by KPS.
KPS is an investment fund that controls manufacturing companies across multiple sectors. The KPS subsidiary, Speira, produces recycled aluminium and manufactures flat rolled aluminium products. Real Alloy Europe manufactures and supplies recycled aluminium. It also provides recycling services to third parties for (hazardous) by-products from the aluminium recycling process, such as dross and salt slag.
The Commission’s investigation showed that, as a result of the transaction, the parties could restrict access to recycled aluminium and to dross and slag recycling services.
KPS offered to divest Real Alloy’s recycled aluminium production and dross recycling facility in Swansea (UK) and Real Alloy’s salt slag recycling plant in Sainte-Menehould (France).
The commitments include the structural divestiture of a stand-alone business consisting of two plants with sufficient capacity to continue providing services and supplying competitors for aluminium flat rolled products. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)