Brussels, 29/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has given a conditional green light to the purchase of French group Pechiney by the Canadian Alcan. This operation, which will create the world number one in aluminium in turnover, is on the condition that the new company will shed some assets. The Alcan group (turnover of 12.5 billion dollars in 2002 with 54,000 employees), which has still to get the go-ahead from the American authorities, has declared itself delighted to have obtained the nod from Europe. "Getting the authorisation of the European Commission was an important condition of the success of our bid", said Mr Travis Engen, chairman of Alcan. The Alcan group bid 47.5 EUR per Pechiney share, in cash and shares, which values the whole group at 4 billion EUR. The bid's success is, however, conditional on obtaining at least 50% of the shares. EUROPE will come back on this decision.