Brussels, 10/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has given conditional approval to the proposed acquisition of Italian chemicals company Ausimont SpA by Solvay SA of Belgium from Montedison SpA. This is Solvay's largest acquisition to date, which makes it the world's number two player in fluoroproducts after DuPont of the United States. The Commission's review showed that the operation posed no competition problems in most chemical markets concerned, including in the products derived from oxygen and chlorine as well as a number of fluor-based chemicals. The Commission, however, identified serious concerns in two product markets: persalts, a raw material with a bleaching agent used in the production of detergents, for which Solvay is the leading producer in Europe; and non-coatings polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF, which is easily melt-processible, enabling it to be used in a variety of injection and compression moulding and extrusion processes. In the persalts markets, the Commission was particularly concerned that Solvay would no longer compete actively with Degussa, its largest competitor, because of the link between Ausimont and Degussa through their MedAvox joint venture. These three companies between them hold over 75% of the EEA (European Economic Area) persalts market. The only other competitors to Solvay/Ausimont and Degussa in this market are FMC Foret of Spain and Finland's Kemira and they are considerably smaller. In order to solve the Commission's concerns, Solvay offered to divest Ausimont's 50-percent stake in MedAvox, effectively severing the structural links between Solvay and Degussa. The PVDF market is already highly concentrated with only four players: Solvay, Ausimont, Atofina of France and Japanese company Kureha. The merger between Solvay and Ausimont would put Solvay and Atofina in position that dominates the market. To address these concerns, Solvay committed itself to divest its non-coatings PVDF plant based at Decatur, Alabama, in the United States, which represents around 20% of world-wide capacity and accounts for between 5% to 10% of world-wide sales. Solvay also committed itself to divest its shares in Alventia, a production only joint venture company with Dyneon, a subsidiary of 3M of the United States. The Commission believes that these commitments will resolve the competition concerns and has therefore authorised the operation.