Brussels, 12/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has given the green light to the proposed acquisition of Innovene, a US petrochemical company, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Petroleum Group and active mainly in the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, by the UK-based group INEOS. Also active in these countries, as well as in Belgium, Italy and elsewhere, INEOS is involved in the production, distribution, sales and marketing of intermediate and speciality chemicals. The main affected markets in this operation were ethylene oxide and its derivatives. The Commission's examination showed that the proposed operation did not raise horizontal or vertical competition concerns in the relevant markets.
The business at the Innovene plant in Köln-Dormagen (ethylene oxide and ethylene glycols) will be excluded from the first part of the operation. Under the terms of a two-year agreement, the parties have entered into option agreements for the sale of the business. Should the options be exercised, the Commission would examine anew the entire transaction. Under Community legislation, if, within a two-year period, two or more acquisitions take place between the same companies, these transactions are regarded as a single concentration.