Brussels, 10/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission gave the go ahead to the acquisition, by the investment companies CVC Capital Partners and Cinven group Ltd, of the packaging and corrugated cardboard production units of the Swedish group AssiDoman AB gathered within the company Alpha. It noted no competition problems in these markets, the consumers retaining the choice between a wide range of suppliers.
CVC and Cinven have joint control over Kappe Holding BV, which manufactures and distributes paper and packaging products. Furthermore, the company collects and sells recycled paper and cardboard in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The Commission examined whether there exist overlaps in activities between Alpha and Kappa, which the investment companies intend to merge. It noted that the companies both produced and sold corrugated packaging materials, sheets of corrugated cardboard, corrugated boxes, sheets of homogenous cardboard and packaging. However, the activities of the two companies on the market for corrugated cardboard products are largely complementary on the geographic level, AssiDoman being mainly present in the countries where Kappa is hardly present, such as Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and France. The new merged entity will also not dominate the European market for packaging products, in which the Swedish company SCA and the Irish Smurfit maintain a lead.