Brussels, 14/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - After its investigation, the Commission authorised the proposed acquisition of the Canadian chemicals company, Acetex, by the US-based merchant-banking firm, Blackstone, for the sum of $492 million. The inquiry essentially covered the activities of Celanese, which is controlled by Blackstone and is present on the same markets as Acetex. The Commission gave its authorisation despite its initial doubts concerning the horizontal overlapping on the markets for acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) and acetic anhydride. Although the acquisition by Acetex will strengthen the dominant position of Celanese, the Commission concluded that there was no risk on these three markets, which are of world size and on which powerful companies (BP, Millennium, Daicel, Dow, DuPont and Eastman) will continue to exert sufficient competitive pressure.